Worth The Pain
by Shannamon
Summary: Katniss is about to start her senior year of high school with her popular boyfriend Marvel, they have rebuilt their relationship after he cheated on her, Peeta who has been waiting for his opportunity to be with Katniss is tired of waiting, and proposes a way for them to be together. Everlark.
1. Chapter 1

A/N - My first Fanfiction. This chapter is really just an introductory chapter, I wanted to put as much backstory and introduce as many characters as I needed (more will definitely come into the story later) as I could into one chapter. VERY VERY alternate universe, very modern day, very fluffy, just for fun. Basically I'm just using the names of the characters from THG and I don't own any of them, but, everyone will probably end up similar in personality, but them not growing up in an impoverished suppressed world will result in much less heavy characters. Be gentle when judging or commenting, leave suggestions if you like. The story is actually going to be much bigger than this and is inspired by a lot of the music on the radio right now (Taylor Swift, Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, etc., etc., etc...). I hope you enjoy.

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><p>It had started when he began to date her. It was casual, and at first she didn't really even think they were dating, just friends. He was attractive, in a way that he knew, but it didn't really come off as arrogant, just confident. They were partnered up in biology class, he found it hilarious that this girl who was normally so cold and quiet confided in him that she was petrified, terrified, immobilizing afraid of the creatures. He did all the work of dissecting while she looked the other way and took notes and recorded observations based on his descriptions. They passed with a remarkable grade on that project.<p>

To celebrate he had taken her to the most popular pizza place in town. It was where all the high school kids went to after school, or dances, or after their teams won big games. It was where he had introduced her to all his friends, they all got along great. She wasn't a typical girl in the sense that she didn't run with one of the cliques. She liked to pretend it was because she was above that kind of "high school" stuff and didn't need to fall into a crowd, when really up until this point she had a little sister to watch out for while their mother who worked as a nurse at the local hospital during the evenings trying to provide for them. Her new found freedom was thanks to the fact that her mother had fallen in love with a handsome doctor who ran the local AA program at the hospital where she worked. He moved into their modest split level home with them the previous summer. They were engaged now and Katniss' mom managed to take a job that didn't work such long hours, that and the fact that her sister was now old enough to walk herself home from school, and attitudy enough to not want a babysitter there waiting for her allowed for a lot of free time for Katniss.

It had been a good night, they laughed, she made friends, they found her interesting enough to invite her to keep hanging out with her at school. A side effect was that she was drawing the attention of the guys enough for the girls to notice her, to want to get to know her to either become her friend, or to keep her close enough to pretend to at the very least. She knew this new popularity probably wouldn't last, but hey, she could enjoy it while she had it. High school became bearable.

He definitely hung out with her more and more, they didn't only go to the pizza place anymore, they went to movies, when he drove her home they would stay parked in her drive way for hours just talking and laughing and having a good time. She found that she actually liked him. He was one of those guys who she had watched from afar before, always with a new girl, always breaking hearts, girls would whisper around her how much they liked him, or hated him depending on if he had just dropped her the week before. She watched enough to know to be cautious, so being just friends was fine with her, she would get over this crush, that's all it was after all.

They were in her drive way after the movies one night when he changed it all. The atmosphere was different, she could feel it. She lost herself in his eyes, those deep dazzling brown doe eyes that dozens of girls before her had fallen for. Her stomach was filled with butterflies; she had fallen into it like an idiot. It was amazing. Afterward he told her all about how she was different from all of the other girls he had ever fallen for, he hadn't been prepared for her, she was the last thing he was expecting, but he knew that he had finally found his match. She ate up every word and surrendered to him.

They became an official couple. That spring she went and watched every soccer practice, went to every game, even the away games. Their school wasn't the champion of their district for soccer, but he was still the best player in their grade. Before every game she kissed him before he went into the locker room, and when he came out she was there. She was a model girlfriend, and she was a legend for locking him down. He had never been on more than a few dates with other girls, but here they were, four months later and fast approaching the end of the school year. They would start next year as seniors and basically be the "it" couple. They were happy, hardly ever fought and really did genuinely enjoy each other when they were together, alone or with their friends.

That is, until she found out about "her". They had gone to a party that the seniors were throwing, she had never been to one of these parties before. There was music, beer, and drama. She was standing with her friends when her friend Madge came up to her. Madge gave her a confused look, and glanced upstairs.

"What's up?" Katniss asked

Madge pointed upstairs, "Didn't I just see you go upstairs with Marvel?"

Katniss laughed and looked around at the circle of girls she was standing with. "No."

Madge looked awkward, "Well I definitely just saw him go upstairs with someone. It was definitely him, but I guess I didn't clearly see who he went with. I'm sorry." She was a sweet girl; there was so much dread in her eyes that Katniss actually believed her. Her circle of "friends" she was currently with were practically drooling at the idea that they were currently about to witness the fall from grace of Marvel and Katniss. She didn't know what to do in that moment, her head was spinning, she didn't know if she should rage up the stairs and confront what was surely happening, or if she should try to remain calm, save her reputation, insist Madge was mistaken and continue with her friends and ignore what was surely happening in this moment and confront him later. She looked at her friends; she found she locked eyes with Johanna. Out of all of her new friends she was the one she found Johanna had probably become the closest, most real, and the most like herself out of everyone. They were similar in that they weren't the typical popular chick you would think to find in their crowd. In Johanna's eyes she found her answer.

Katniss chose to rage.

She went marching up the stairs and ripped open every door until she found Marvel and Glimmer laid out on the bed of some stranger rounding second base and on their way to third. They both stopped immediately and looked at the door, Glimmer looked annoyed, then a bit triumphant, it made Katniss sick. Marvel had the exact opposite look, he had dread and fear and regret in his eyes. Katniss just looked at them both, still not knowing what to do, she was aware of the crowd that had followed her up here waiting for her reaction. She was in a situation she never thought she'd find herself in, complete high school drama. She looked at Marvel with every ounce of rage that she had in her body portrayed in her eyes, until she felt the hurt and betrayal. Not wanting to make a bigger scene than she had, not wanting to appear weak in front of all of these people who would surely judge her forever after this situation, she just turned on her heal and headed for the door. She made sure to hide the hurt and anger so that every person she looked at on her way out of that house didn't know what to think of what had just happened. She could hear Marvel calling after her.

The party was at least a half hour car ride from her house; she didn't know how to get home. She had no choice; she went and waited by his car. He caught up to her moments later anyway. She held her hand out to him.

"Give me your keys." She demanded.

"Why?"

"Because I wanna go home and you're not driving me home if you're drunk." Katniss stated.

"I…uh…haven't been drinking." He told her.

She looked at him dumfounded, rolled her eyes, and let out an exasperated breath. "Get in the car, we are not doing this here."

They got in, he drove away, she raged. "You had the nerve to not only embarrass me in front of everyone, but to completely and utterly betray me, and not even have the decency to have the excuse of being drunk!" She screamed at him while using her small purse to hit his arm while he drove.

He apologized the whole way home; he didn't know why he did it. He tried to down play it by pointing out that everyone's been with Glimmer, she was seducing him, he couldn't help it, and he was a guy after all. It wasn't like he had done anything with Glimmer that he hadn't done with Katniss. He said anything and everything to her to try to down play what had just happened. She was beyond talking to him. She sat silently next to him while he said all the wrong things to her and everything he said either angered her more, just didn't make sense, or just plain old wasn't enough to calm the anger within. When he dropped her off at home he at least had the common sense to realize that she was too angry for him to even attempt to kiss away the pain. The minute the car stopped she got out, slamming the door with enough fury to make him flinch, but not enough to actually damage the car. She marched inside without a backwards glance, slammed her own front door shut, and promptly fell apart. Say what you will, he was her first love, she thought she had changed him, she thought what they had was real. It wasn't, and that was hard to face. She cried herself to sleep that night, her twelve year old sister joining her in Katniss' room which was apart from the rest of the bedrooms in the house.

Their split level home had two large bedrooms in the upstairs with a generously large bathroom; those rooms belonged to her mother and Dr. Haymitch Abernathy, and her sister Prim. The main floor was the living room, kitchen, and dining room areas, and their lower level was the larger den, and off of that was Katniss' bed room and bathroom. Both were small, but she liked it down here. Her windows were higher up in her room, flush with the ground outside, she could see into the back yard into the gardens that she and her father used to tend to together before he had passed away. It was nice, a major bonus was that she was far enough away from her mom and Haymitch that she could play her music at a decent level any time she wanted, or in this case, cry without parental involvement.

Her heart hurt.

The next day she successfully avoided his calls and texts for a whole day, well half a day. Her heart hurt and she wanted him to make it better. She met with him that night, they talked for hours again. There was only a week left of school, they decided to give it another shot, he told her he was sorry, she wanted to believe him. He kissed away her tears, she let him. They decided to go back to school as friends, it was exam week anyway, they really only had to school to write one exam per day, then they would have the rest of the day off. So that was what they did, they went to school, she walked in with her head held high, but not holding his hand or with his arm around her as usual. She glared Glimmer down with a threatening look in her eye, dared her to even so much as talk to Marvel without saying a single word. Glimmer smirked at her, but walked away in the end. They finished out the school week as they had planned, as friends as they were a few months before.

That summer they were inseparable.

They went swimming, they went to the drive in movie theatre every weekend but didn't actually watch any movies, they went to the beach, and they did everything they could together. They grew closer to each other than ever before, they were happy. He said all the right things; he made all the right promises to her and sealed it with a beautiful simple ring with her birthstone in it. They were solid.

She never thought that she would be the one to destroy it.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N - Keep in mind, still my first fanfiction. Still trying to work think kinks of this story out and make it flow the way I want it to. Will get better...hopefully...maybe...probably. :s

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

They were on their way to their first party together in months, since the last one that had ended in disaster. They were the seniors now, however, and the party was being thrown by Marvel's best friend Cato, so they both knew they had to attend. She sighed comfortably and sat back in her seat beside Marvel in his car, allowing the air conditioning to chill her body, she was dressed in a pair of incredibly short shorts and a tube top with one of Marvels old band t-shirts that she pulled and stretched and cut to her liking so it would seem less slutty than just walking around in a tube top, but it still showed off her flat tummy and thin arms enough to be sexy.

They pulled to a stop in front of the elegant two story home. It seemed everyone was arriving at once. There were dozens of teenagers walking up to the home, the door was left open inviting the guests inside. Marvel covered her hand with his.

"We don't need to go in; we could just stay here all night." He said in a low voice.

She looked at him and smiled wickedly, "oh, and what would we do out here all night?"

"Something, nothing, everything, and whatever you want." He leaned over and drew her into a deep kiss, followed by trailing several down her jaw line and neck. She allowed herself to enjoy it for a few minutes before pushing him away.

"You know we need to go in, everyone is waiting for you."

"They're waiting for us, to see if we go in together or not." Marvel reasoned. She nodded her head, she knew this. Their friends knew they were back together. Johanna had been furious and told her that if Marvel had ever done something like that to her she would have gone for revenge, not forgiveness. Madge had understood and just said that as long as Katniss was happy and willing to forgive that was all that mattered.

"I know they're waiting. I really just want to go in there, give them their show, and enjoy the rest of our night."

"I won't leave your side at all tonight." He promised.

She shook her head. "Let's just be normal. I don't want to look like I feel the need to keep you on a leash. Let's forget about the last party, it never happened. We're solid right?"

He smile at her and pulled her in for another deep kiss. "I love you so much."

After another few minutes of relieved and confidence building making out they left the car and headed for the party. She had shown a brave face in the car, but walking into the party was terrifying. Her heart was beating a million times per minute and she forgot how to breathe for a moment. She saw dozens of people look at them as they walked in; it seemed that everyone was trying to get a look at them. She held her head and prayed that she looked as confident as she was trying to look. She looked at Marvel and was calmed to find he was looking only at her with adoration in those big brown doe eyes she loved. Her unease melted away and she smile back at him lovingly. They went inside and found their friends. His group of guy friends was around the beer table and cheered when they saw him. He had been the hero of the summer when his parents allowed him to invite all of his friends to their beach house two weeks ago for a week long summer vacation. His parents had gone on a trip to some island somewhere and wouldn't be using it anyway. Marvel had gone with his ten closest friends for guys week while she went camping with her sister and Haymitch. It had been a nice break, a week to themselves which she felt they both needed. She tried to leave to find Johanna and Madge but he held her hand tightly and wrapped his arm around her waist.

She fulfilled her duty of loving girlfriend perfectly. The right amount of PDA, dancing, and general partying necessary. It was getting late and she walked over to the drink table for a cup of some kind of spiked fruit juice and found herself standing next to Peeta Mellark. He was basically the male equivalent to Glimmer. Tall, blonde, blue eyes. At Capital High School if you weren't in love with Marvel, you were definitely in love with Peeta. They were two halves of the same coin in high school world, boys were different though, and they didn't compete for titles like girls did. The boys were practically best friends.

Katniss had been drawn to both boys. In fact, years ago in the eighth grade Katniss had actually been good friends with Glimmer. Their moms had been friends growing up and thus Katniss and Glimmer grew up playing together during their mom's coffee get togethers or mall trips. Glimmer hosted the first boy girl party Katniss had ever gone to at her house which was one of the first fun things Katniss remembered going to after her father's tragic fatal car accident. Katniss had arrived to Glimmer's house young and nervous. They played spin the bottle. Since Katniss' world had only just started to recover from being turned upside down and inside out from the accident nearly two years before this was her first real chance to see the shallow attention seeking girl that Glimmer was growing into. But Katniss knew Peeta Mellark would be there, and she just wanted to forget about home for a while, she wanted the chance to have fun the way a teenager should.

Peeta's spin landed on her, he gave a slightly shy smile and wiped his hands on his jeans. He looked at her and smiled genuinely, she looked deep into those deep blue eyes. His blonde hair was longish and shaggy in a way that was so accidentally cool it hurt. She stroked her braid nervously before they both leaned across the circle of kids who would mostly would grow to the friends she currently had in high school. Everyone hooted and whistled because they were the first of the couple to actually kiss and not chicken out and just hug or something lame. Her cheeks flamed red with embarrassment. Her turn was next and she hoped and prayed and spun the bottle accurately enough for it to land on Peeta again. This time someone declared seven minutes in heaven and they were whisked away to a closet where they were reckless enough to start an actual make out session, well, as capable a make out session as two thirteen year olds are capable of. Between kisses Peeta revealed how he was happy that the bottle had landed on her and no one else. She shared that the only reason she was at this party was for him. They were happy. She had her first boyfriend; they would walk down the halls of their junior high school hand in hand. They stole innocent kisses at their lockers, but, her mother's lifestyle prevented Katniss from hanging out with her friends the way a girl has to in order to keep up with the popular crowd. She had to turn down so many invitations to go hang out or to go to parties that eventually they stopped inviting her altogether. She and her mother fought, Katniss wanted to be part of her crowd, she wanted to be Peeta Mellark's girlfriend.

Peeta was understanding, he was the first boy other than her father to tell her that he loved her. She could see that she was holding him back, during school he would hang out with her, but she began to feel like an outsider from her own friends. He tried to include her, letting her know the origins of all the inside jokes, he really did try. Katniss, however, began to become withdrawn, jealous, and built a wall around herself so no one would see how much it hurt her to miss out. It hurt, but she pulled away from Peeta, sure that he was going to break up with her eventually anyway, this way, if she pulled away enough, it wouldn't hurt her the way she had seen her mother become a shell of herself when her father was gone. It's not the same, but the idea that you can wrap yourself around someone so much that you can't function and hurt all the time even when you pretend you aren't hurting was too much for Katniss to understand at her young age. The end of the school year played out, she was friendly to Peeta, but didn't return his kisses, didn't hold his hand. She just let herself drift away from him until he was nothing more than a friend. When high school started the following September she kept tabs on him. Saw that the core of her old friends formed the popular group at school, along with a mix of kids from other districts of their town such as Marvel, Johanna, and Cato. Peeta was a champ in their age group for wrestling, his brothers before him were also popular enough for the older kids to accept him and kind of adopt him into their groups as well. He was good looking enough to date girls a grade or even two ahead of him. He turned into a real player, never having a steady girl, a different girl around his arm each week it seemed. Katniss was glad that she had ended things with him; he was good looking in the way that made him arrogant, and that was a deal breaker with Katniss.

When Katniss started hanging out with her old crowd after Marvel had brought her in again she and Peeta had never really said much to each other. Which is why she was surprised to find him next to her now, as alone as two people could be at a party full of teenagers.

Peeta cleared his throat next to her, "I see you've forgiven him."

Katniss looked to Peeta, "um, yeah. There's not much to forgive, Marvel and I are solid. I can forgive a onetime mistake."

Peeta looked at her and back to Marvel across the room. Marvel wasn't paying attention to them; he was laughing loudly with Cato and talking to a couple of girls who had the courage to come up to them. "I just want you to know, that we never broke up…um…not officially. So technically you've been cheating on me for the past few months. So I know a lot how Marvel feels, and I just wanted you to know that I'm willing to take a page from your book and forgive you any time you want to come back."

Katniss coughed into her drink. "Did you really just say that to me?"

"Yeah, do you often have daydreams of me saying similar things to you?" Peeta laughed somewhat awkwardly for him. He was acting different, she could tell, she had hung out with him in groups of people enough to know that he never came across as nervous, which is exactly how he seemed now. She looked him in the eyes at the same time he looked into hers. Her heart did a little jump, just the way it did when she was thirteen. His eyes were a different kind of blue, solid and mesmerizing and they seemed to change shades with his mood. Right now they were dark and full of wondering and courage, same way they looked that night they first kissed. She shook the memories out of her head.

"No, I don't." She said rather coldly. She drank from her drink, her head a little dizzy and light from the alcohol in it. She thought she'd better stop while she was ahead.

He looked at her thoughtfully. "I could help you, you know."

"How?" she asked with ice in her tone again. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him anymore.

"Well you say that you've forgiven him, but how can you really. I think you'd generate more respect for yourself as queen of the school if you got him back at least a little, by…oh…let's say going upstairs with his best friend like he did to you."

Katniss laughed at that one. "What do you mean generate more respect? I'm not putting on some kind of show for the school, I love Marvel, and Glimmer has never been my best friend. If anything, she's jealous of me."

Peeta waited a few minutes before answering as the area of the room they were in suddenly got crowded. When it seemed he became annoyed and couldn't wait any longer he took her by the elbow and out the patio door that was a few feet away from them on their side of the room. Once outside in a less crowded area he looked at her again with a mischievous smile on his handsome face. "Glimmer was you're best friend once, or as close to having one as I've ever seen you have, and of course she's jealous of you. Glimmer's been Marvel's on and off again girl since forever, well…ok…not forever but since like freshman year. Haven't you ever noticed that she's the one he usually took to dances and stuff? They've never been official but he never was official with anyone until you came in and stole him for yourself."

"I did not steal him, he chose me. I really didn't do much other than be myself, it's not like I'm playing some game with him." She defended herself. Although now that she was thinking of it she did seem to recall that Glimmer and Marvel were once king and queen of some kind of junior sophomore dance, but really she hadn't attended any school dances before the winter formal the previous year. So she really wouldn't have known that they went together regularly.

"All of high school is a game Katniss. I know that you are new to the sport but think of it. You came in and stole your spot on his arm that Glimmer had been working for years to hold down. This was going to be her year until you came into the picture. I'm just saying you need to play the game along with everyone else. Marvel just showed everyone that he has the loyalty of the hottest girl in school, tonight was about him showing everyone that you're his no matter what he does. In this game that basically sends a message out to every guy to not to try anything with his girl, you're in it to win no matter what anyway. At this point you being with anyone else is social suicide for you and whoever else is involved." Peeta explained quickly.

Katniss was getting confused. "I think you're looking into this to closely. I just love him, and I'm willing to forgive him. That's really all there is to it, I'm not playing a game."

"You don't love him." he stated simply.

"Yes I do." Katniss laughed and nodded her head, rolling her eyes in exasperation at him.

"No you don't. I know what you're like in love, what you love with Marvel is being the centre of attention." Peeta said as he leaned down closer to her face. It happened quickly; her body reacted before she did. It was electric. She kissed back, wanting more for no other reason than she needed it to keep existing. She came alive, in that moment she allowed the broken thirteen year old within her relive her dream, with the added bonus that now as seventeen year olds they were both more experienced and they were able to both do this confidently. She forgot who she was, where she was, who may have been watching. Oh god, who was watching? She pulled away abruptly and looked around. They were in the shadows; no one appeared to be paying attention to them at all. She sighed with relief, and looked back at the slyly grinning Peeta Mellark. "If you want to play this game with me, you don't need to tell him. No one needs to know, but I know that we are good together. It could be fun, no one would know, no one would get hurt."

She could do nothing but turn and walk away, sure that the surprise and shame was written all over her face. She walked directly to Marvel, "I'd like to go home now." Marvel turned to look at her with concern on his face. "Please."

He pulled her under his strong arm "Are you ok?"

"Yeah Katniss, are you ok?" Peeta asked as he came walking up to the group, just the right amount of sarcasm in his tone so that only she would pick up on it.

"No, actually, I think there was too much alcohol in my drink. I'm not feeling well; I'd like to go home."

"Marvel, I can drive her home for you. I was just about to leave anyway." Peeta offered.

"No man, that's fine. I'll get her there." Marvel and Katniss said their good byes and left the party. Katniss looked over her shoulder before the left the house and Peeta was watching her, looking very much like the thirteen year old he used to be watching her pull away from her friends. It made her heart hurt for the boy in the memory.

They got in the car; she played the part of sick girlfriend very well, slumped down slightly with her head leaning against the window. She replayed the events of the night, but mostly the kiss. She allowed her fingers to trace her lips where Peeta's kiss had landed. It was confusing, she loved Marvel, but that kiss was electric. It made her shamefully want more; she looked over at Marvel who was concentrating on the road ahead of him. Was this how being with Glimmer had made him feel, is this the feeling he had tried to describe to her when he made that mistake. She loved Marvel; she tried to rationalize what had just happened. It had to be the rush of it, maybe Peeta had been right, and maybe deep down she wanted to follow Johanna's advice, she wanted to do something to get back at Marvel, at least a little bit.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - Ok, I think this is my last set up chapter before I get to the actual story that I want to tell. I'm trying to keep with ages and timelines of the book, but just remember, personalities and things have changed. Basically I'm making all this up, only thing HG is names of characters for which I do not own. It's a little long, but hopefully I've done enough ground work for the actual good stuff to start flowing. Let me know what you think :)

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

The next morning was Sunday. It was devoted to going out with her mother and sister for back to school shopping. It was a good day, they'd had brunch and then shopped basically all day. Haymitch was sulky as only a man who had never had to shop with girls can possibly be, but over all they'd had a good time with him, poking fun of him where they could. He'd been a good sport. Katniss was glad he was with her mother and that she'd found someone to make her happy again.

They'd barely come in the door when the door bell rang. Haymitch returned moments later.

"Katniss, there's a boy here for you."

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you just invite him in?" She asked as she walked passed him. Usually Marvel called or texted before he just showed up.

Katniss stopped short at the door. It wasn't Marvel, it was Peeta standing I the door way. She wasn't sure what to do.

"Sweetheart, I'm new to this whole teenager thing, but I know not to make a habit of inviting strange boys into the house."

Just then Prim walked into the room. "Peeta?" She asked incredulously.

"Hey, Prim." Peeta greeted her. When Katniss and Peeta had been together for that brief time in the eighth grade Peeta had come to the Everdeen house to hang out with Katniss while she babysat. Prim had been nine then, and she loved Peeta, Prim had asked for a while when he was coming back to hang out with them until she realized it made her sister either sad or irritated when she brought up the subject so she eventually dropped it.

Prim, being the gracious host that Katniss and Haymitch were not, invited him in and offered him a drink, all before Katniss could collect her thoughts enough to figure out what to do.

"Um, Haymitch, this is Peeta Mellark, my friend from school. We'll go hang out in the den so we don't bother you here." Katniss explained, effectively communicating to Haymitch that she did not want to be interrupted.

Peeta took a step towards Haymitch and introduced himself to Haymitch more formally and politely, he handed Haymitch the wrapped package from his family's bakery. Haymitch immediately opened it and ate one of the apple pastries from inside. As he walked away he leaned over and whispered to Katniss "Keep this one, he actually comes into the house and brings food. I kinda like this boy."

As soon as they were in the den she turned on him. "What are you doing here at my house?" She demanded.

Peeta laughed, sat down and made himself at home on the big comfortable sectional sofa. "You kissed me back last night." He stated simply.

She wasn't expecting him to be so forward about. "Yeah, well you surprised me." She sighed. "And it's not like it was terrible or anything." She awkwardly shrugged and looked at her feet. "I'll even admit, it was somewhat pleasant, but that doesn't change anything. I'm not breaking up with Marvel, I'm still in love with him."

Peeta stood up and walked toward her. He looked deep into her grey eyes. "I told you, I don't care. You can keep playing your game all you want. No one has to know about this but us," he raised his hand to her face and held it against her cheek gently. She could feel the spark between them, she was losing it again. This thing that she felt when Peeta touched or looked at her, she lost herself in those dazzling blue eyes. He kissed her again, and again she kissed him back. In this moment she realized that she had a weakness for Peeta Mellark and lost herself in his way with words as he spoke to her between kisses. Everything he said made sense and convinced her that they could do this together. They made their way to the sofa together and continued their kissing.

After a while she came to her senses and pushed him away gently, trying to collect her thoughts. "I'm not playing any game. I do love him."

"Ok, there's no game, and you love him. That's fine, but you like being with me too, I'm offering a way to do both."

"What's in this for you? Marvel is like, your best friend. Why would you do this to him? Betray him. It doesn't make sense."

"I have my reasons. And besides, if he never finds out, we won't be betraying him. You like me, I like you. If you love him, and you're not playing a game with him and everything is good that's great, fine, I'm happy for you. But there's something about you Katniss Everdeen that makes me think we could be good together, we have this electricity," Peeta said excitedly, "and even if everything you say is real, can't we just have this too? One secret to ourselves, no one will know, and you and I can work through this thing until we get bored, this gets old and everything goes back to normal. No one hurt and we can wipe our hands clean."

It was ridiculous, and the most bizarre thing anyone had ever said to her. "You need to leave now."

Peeta looked at Katniss. "You're kicking me out?" He asked.

"Yes, besides. I was supposed to be at Madge's place like ten minutes ago. And as appealing as your offer is to cheat on my boyfriend, I think it's going to be a polite pass for me." Katniss replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. "Besides, you forgot one thing, I love him. And I wouldn't hurt him that way, even if he never found out, I would know. I can't do that to him."

Peeta shrugged his shoulders and stood. "Remember what I said. If you ever change your mind I'm willing to take you back all the same." He smiled his mischievous grin, and he and Katniss left the den and she saw him out of her home after he said his goodbyes to Prim and Haymitch.

When he was gone Hamitch looked at her with a smile and said half jokingly "you know, you are awfully young to be tied down to one guy."

Katniss was embarrassed, "Were you eavesdropping on me?"

"Like I said, I'm new to this teenage thing, but I know enough to know not to leave my step daughter downstairs with a boy unsupervised. Your mom  
>would kill me."<p>

"She never really cared before." Katniss muttered bitterly as she walked passed him. For as little as she used to be home before she could have had anyone over for any length of time and she never would have known. If it hadn't been for her lack of a social life she probably would have.

Katniss went to her room and grabbed her beach bag with her bathing suit and other necessities and headed for Madge's house. She only lived two blocks away and Katniss was thankful for the opportunity to think.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was flattered. After years of keeping to herself she definitely was enjoying it and appreciating the life she currently had. She had crushed on Peeta for years, so it was nice to have his attention now, but she had also seen him evolve into a person that she generally didn't like. He was different from her Marvel. Sure, both were popular and good looking and knew it, both could get any girl they wanted. Ok, so there weren't that many differences, but still. Marvel had changed for her, and cared for her, and they loved each other.

She arrived at Madge's house still confused. Madge lived in the biggest house in their district neighbourhood. The city of Panem was quite large, it centered around the downtown district that people referred to as the Capital. Everything was there: Capital General Hospital where her mom and Haymitch worked, Capital High School, and The Capital Mall. Surrounding the Capital was the residential neighbourhoods which were conveniently separated into twelve districts. Katniss of course was from district 12, each district was big enough to have their own school systems them that ran until junior high, and then starting with high school everyone was bused to the Capital High unless you were lucky enough to have a car and could drive yourself. Most people who had to commute to The Capital for work did so by commuter train that passed through each district. District 12 was the oldest neighbourhood and was built long before the Capital was a thing, so it was the furthest away, but they did have some homes that were either incredibly old and made with beautiful architecture as Madge's was, or was just old enough to for it to not quite fit in with the surrounding homes like Katniss' and not new enough to be considered modern. She didn't care, she loved her home, they had been a real family in that home before her dad had passed away.

Katniss walked up to the house and spent the afternoon by the pool with Madge and Johanna. It was a perfect way to finish out the afternoon before school started the next day. Katniss forgot all about her Peeta problems for the moment.

Marvel had text Katniss and asked if she and the other girls wanted to meet up with the guys at the pizza place and they were about to get dressed and head out when a tall dark and obviously older guy came walking out from Madge's house began walking over to them.

"Who is that?" Johanna asked appreciatively.

"That's my cousin Gale. He went to our school, don't you remember?" Madge replied. "He graduated two years ago."

"That's Gale Hawthorne? No way, how did he get even better looking, he's delicious." Johanna practically drooled.

Katniss remembered him; he didn't live too far from Katniss. They were both quiet reserved people at the time. He was nice to Katniss. Her only friend, her best friend for a while, both were kind of loners and she enjoyed his company. She had missed him after he left for college but hadn't heard anything at all after he left. She wasn't even aware that he was Madge's cousin.

He walked up to the girls and he and Madge exchanged some words, Johanna sat up and turned her body in ways that showed off her bikini clad body. Katniss laughed and realized that she wasn't wearing much more than her friend. She quickly covered herself with her sundress that she had worn to Madge's.

"Catnip?" Gale asked incredulously.

"Hey Gale." Katniss smiled at him and was slightly embarrassed, thinking of the times that she and Gale has mocked the "cool" kids. Surely he knew that his cousin was part of that crowed and she wondered what he must think of her being here at Madge's.

"I haven't seen you in years." He came to Katniss and gave her a friendly hug. They had the world's quickest polite conversation where she asked how college was and he asked how she and Prim were doing. It was enough for Madge and Johanna to recognize that these two who knew each other well had not spoken in a while and raise their eyebrows in surprise. When he left the two demanded answers, they all dressed quickly and got into Madge's car.

Madge drive the girls to the pizza place while she and Johanna bombarded Katniss with questions. Katniss did her best to dodge them, or ignore them, all the girls were laughing and giggling until Johanna said something that completely surprised Katniss.

"Seriously Katniss, you can't expect us to believe that was the first time you saw Gale in like, two years. You didn't keep in contact with him or anything after he left? I hadn't even heard that you two officially broke up. We just assumed you were still dating him until you starting hanging out with us and Marvel staked his claim on you." Johanna finished with a laugh.

Katniss was confused, "Um, excuse me? What? I've never dated Gale."

There was silence in the car for a moment. Madge glanced in the rearview mirror at Johanna and exchanged a meaningful look. Madge cleared her throat, "I know you try to be a private person Katniss, and whatever you tell us we won't tell Marvel what happened between the two of you, but Katniss, the whole school knows that you two dated for like two years."

Katniss let out a disbelieved gasp, "No, we did not. We were friends, that's all, barely even that. We sat together on the bus to school and hung out during lunch, it's not like I ever saw him after school or whatever."

"No way, he's completely your type. You went from tall, dark, and handsome Gale to tall, dark, handsome and popular Marvel." Johanna said in disbelief.

"Yeah, do you know how much Cashmere hated you for that? She had been working her magic on him for years until he met you and shut her out completely. He even talked about you once in a while to me, telling me how nice you were and how he thought we could be really good friends. I just assumed for a while that you were the kind of girl who only liked to concentrate on her boyfriend." Madge chimed in.

Cashmere was Glimmer's older sister, who was also a twin of Gloss, Glimmer's older brother. Cashmere and Gloss were high school royalty. Katniss had known them growing up as well but never really saw them all that much and they always seemed rather self-absorbed and never really all that nice to Katniss. She was always thankful when Glimmer's mom left them at home so she could just play with Glimmer. They set the trail in high school for Glimmer. Glimmer was set to inherit the legend that family had left to her at that school, that is, until Katniss had come in and started to give her a run for her money. If Cashmere blamed Katniss for "stealing" Gale, and Glimmer blamed Katniss for "stealing" Marvel, then Katniss could see a pattern of misunderstanding that had led to why it seemed Glimmer had it out for Katniss.

They arrived at the pizza place and got out of the car and went into the restaurant. It seemed that everyone was taking the last evening before school to hang out here. Marvel, Cato, Peeta and Thresh were here with Glimmer, Delly and Clove already at a large table with seats waiting for Katniss, Johanna and Madge. Katniss wished she was imagining things when she saw that it appeared Glimmer intentionally looked at her and took her hand off of Marvel's shoulder and moved over a few seats. It sent a bolt of doubt and anger through her that she wished she could ignore.

Katniss slid into her seat next to Marvel who kissed her immediately and put his arm around her. She took a sip from his drink and allowed herself to sink into his familiar comfort, trying to shake off what she had just seen. They were friends after all, and Katniss had said she wanted things to be normal. She had to trust Marvel she told herself.

"Guess what we found out about our little Katniss today?" Johanna teased.

Katniss immediately felt herself sit a little taller, her back stiff from momentary panic.

"We saw Gale Hawthorne today and Katniss revealed that she managed to have him wrapped around her little finger, but nothing was ever even going on between them!" Johanna laughed.

Everyone looked to Katniss; her cheeks flamed red from embarrassment. "So much for not telling anyone my private business." She muttered sarcastically.

"Hey, Madge said that. I, however, promised no such thing. Besides, according to you there is no business." Johanna replied.

"Is that true? You were never dating him?" Peeta asked surprised.

"Um, this is the first that I'm hearing that people even thought that. I don't know why people would even think that. We were just friends, we rode the bus to school together, and that's pretty much it. I mean, I considered him my best friend for a while, but honestly, nothing like that ever happened between us."

The guys all looked at each other, then at Marvel and Peeta looked at each other. "Gale heard us talking about you in the guy's dressing room one day when we were freshman after gym class." Marvel began, "we were talking about how hot you were and," Marvel cleared his throat awkwardly "we may have said one or two things that may not have been the most appropriate things to say about you." Marvel revealed. "Well…that part is not important I guess, but, just so you know, it was mostly respectful and stuff…"

"Oh gosh you are whipped man," Peeta interrupted somewhat angrily. "anyway, Gale came thundering towards us, made us take it all back and told us that if he ever heard us talking about 'his girl' again that he would pound us into dust." Peeta finished the story for Marvel.

Katniss played with the end of her braid, a little angry, but not really knowing what she could do about it. "I don't know why he did that, but I was never 'his girl', especially then, I barely knew the guy! I just don't understand."

"Katniss Everdeen, you have no idea the effect you can have on people." Peeta told her sincerely, but it appeared to be funny to everyone else, except maybe Glimmer who Katniss noticed was seething at Peeta's comment.

Marvel looked at Katniss. "If I had known that you weren't his girl, I would have asked you out a long time ago."

"There's never been anyone else for me but you, babe" Katniss said looking deeply into his eyes. She felt he was about to kiss her when Delly interrupted.

"Uh…what about Peeta?"

Katniss immediately felt all the colour drain from her face. A million thoughts when though her mind all at once; that maybe she had seen Katniss and Peeta's stolen kiss the night before, Delly lived in their district, what if she recognized her car in front of Katniss' house earlier that day. Katniss looked to Peeta and even he seemed to have a look of surprise and fear in his eyes.

"Excuse me? What about Peeta?" Marvel asked looking between the Katniss and Peeta.

"They were only like, the cutest couple ever! In the last year of junior high they were inseparable." Delly gushed. Delly had attended the same junior high as Katniss, Peeta, and Madge, but had not hung around in the same circle of friends until they replaced her in Katniss' spot in high school.

"No way! You two dated?" Cato indicated between the two of them.

"Well…not really. We were thirteen, how much can a thirteen year old really date." Katniss downplayed quickly, relieved that their secret hadn't come out before Katniss had found a way to explain what had happened between her and Peeta to Marvel.

"Ouch, Katniss that hurts. We dated for a glorious three months until she got tired of me and dropped me. It took months for my young heart to recover," Peeta played it up sarcastically, earning several laughs, "and you're welcome by the way." He said to Marvel.

"For what?" Marvel asked, laughing at Katniss' reaction to everyone laughing at what she felt like was her expense.

"Teaching her how to kiss a guy properly of course, now that we know Hawthorne was never in the picture we know that she got all of her skills from me. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have the same mind blowing Katniss Everdeen you have now. She's been the only one able to lock you down, man; she must be doing something right." Peeta continued cockily.

"Ok, ok, can we talk about something else?" Katniss tried to redirect the conversation.

There was a bit more teasing, but eventually the conversation turned away from Katniss and she was having fun again with her friends. She excused herself to the washroom, when she was at the sink washing her hands and freshening up before heading out again Glimmer walked into the bathroom. She was angry, Katniss could tell.

"Ok Everdeen, I'm getting really sick of this innocent little girl game you are playing here." Glimmer spoke angrily.

"What? What game? I'm not playing a game."

"Oh please, 'Gale and I were never a thing', you were doing something with him. Luckily my sister saw through it and ended things with him before you turned him into that embarrassing mess, in fact, that was probably why he was so obsessed with you. And Peeta 'oh Katniss, you have no idea the effect you have on people', ugh, it makes me sick that they are all falling for it. Did you forget Katniss? My parents have a beach house too, I was there when all the guys were and Marvel was at my place more than he was at his own! You know, if it weren't for you acting all hurt and innocent he'd be with me right now, yeah, he told me that himself." Glimmer said the last part triumphantly with a sinister sneer in her normally beautiful controlled face. "I'm going to humiliate you this year Katniss, I'm going to expose you for the fake that you are. You don't love Marvel, you love not being the sad invisible girl anymore who had to stay home and dream of all the fun that we were having."

Katniss' head was reeling from this information. Had Marvel really cheated on her again? Was Glimmer really saying all this to her, right now, here in the bathroom of all places? Rage burned deep within Katniss, she thought fast, knew that she couldn't lose it. She looked to Glimmer with determination on her face in her voice and said the first things that came to her mind. "Do you really want to play this game with me Glimmer, you will lose. Keep trying to come after Marvel all you want, you may even get him to be with you behind my back, but he will never leave me for you. The fact is, I seem to have more influence on people than you do, and you could have had me as an ally, but you just chose enemy. Girls like you, well there's a million who do it the way you do, looking as innocent as possible to get what they want. That's not going to be me, that way is too easy. So you can count on this year being different, cause I'm not going to play it your way, I will burn the old way down and set a new path that girls like you will never be able to walk. If you can get him to be with you that's fine, but I've got him where I want him now, and that's not with you." Katniss said this last part in a low voice with ice in her voice and fire in her grey eyes, "Anything you have with him will only ever be secret, and I won't even feel bad about keeping you apart, you want to be me, you're jealous, you don't love him, not like I do, I will take him back every time just to keep you down where you belong."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N - Wrote this chapter twice, but I think this one may be short but is really going more in the direction that I want it to.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4<p>

Anger, red hot searing anger was what she felt leaving the washroom. Marvel hadn't changed, he was a liar, with her he was great, but without her he felt free to so whatever he wanted.

As she came out into the dining area where her friends were still seated at their table. She saw Marvel sitting with their group of friends, and some of them, Peeta being one of them, were heading out.

"Hey," she called out to Peeta. "Are you going home? Can I get a ride with you?" Katniss asked.

"Uh, yeah." He looked to Marvel. "If that's ok with you."

She really did not want Marvel to drive her home, Madge was one of her friends who still sitting and clearly not ready to leave yet, she and Johanna had only just gotten their food. Marvel, thankfully, also did not look like he wanted to leave.

"Is something wrong Katniss? I can take you home myself." Marvel began hesitantly.

Katniss smiled sweetly, seething inside, "It's my mom," she lied, "she just called, she wants me home, like, now. Its fine, you stay. Peeta just lives a few blocks from me right?" She looked to Peeta for confirmation.

"Yeah, it's fine with me."

Marvel said goodbye to Katniss, gave her a kiss, which made her stomach do a little flip in disgust after just finding out he'd most likely been with Glimmer again. The thought that this time she hadn't been there to interrupt, and she really didn't know how far they'd gone, ugh, it made her sick just to think of it.

She and Peeta walked out to his car, he opened the door for her and she got in. She was feeling angry and rebellious, when Peeta got into the driver seat she looked into his eyes and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to her for a reckless kiss. He didn't hesitate; he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her as close to his body as he could, even with the manual gear shift between them. She needed to feel wanted, not as someone's second choice as she clearly was with Marvel. They made no attempt to hide want they were doing, but the car was parked facing the street, not the restaurant, so the odds of someone not seeing them were in their favour. When they pulled apart they were both breathless and exhilarated.

Still holding her Peeta raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "How did you find out about them?"

"You knew?" Katniss questioned, it sometimes seemed like he could read her like an open book.

He let her go, started the car and drove away before answering her question. "They didn't exactly hide anything. She was at the beach house, she was all over him. When he was with us guys he would brag that you were so loyal you would just keep forgiving him even if you ever did find out." He looked at her with real empathy in his eyes, "I'm sorry, but in this crowd it seems that other people tend to know your secrets before you know them yourself."

She looked out the window, deep in thought. "It's ok," she looked at him. "Is that why you offered this?" She indicated between the two of them.

"I couldn't let him play you for a fool. What he's doing to you is crazy," he looked away from the road of a quick moment to stroke her cheek gently with the back of his hand. "He's got you, and he's not willing to let you go. I've been waiting months for my chance to be with you. At this point, I'm willing to be with you anyway I can."

They drove the rest of the way to her house in comfortable silence until they reached her house. She invited him in and they went to the den where Haymitch was inspecting one of the windows. Since he had moved in he was always finding things around the house that needed some handy work done to it.

"What are you looking at?" Peeta asked and went to the window to look out into the front yard.

"I'm not looking out the window, I'm checking out this broken latch. The lock is broken." Haymitch explained.

"Hey, don't fix that lock, that's how we get in the house when one of us forgets our keys." Katniss cried. "More than likely it'll be Prim who needs it; I don't want her stranded outside."

"Or there'll be some stranger inside with her who broke in because of this window." Haymitch replied.

"That window faces the street, a neighbour would see an intruder enter and call the police, besides that's been broken for years we've never been broken into." Katniss reasoned.

Haymitch smirked at her. "It's getting fixed, and it's a school night, you two have a half hour." He said as sternly as he could before he left. With Haymitch safely gone, and when Katniss was sure he wasn't going to eavesdrop this time, she turned to Peeta.

"So when are you going to break things off with him?" He asked

Katniss cleared her throat and looked at her feet. "I wasn't planning on breaking things off with him."

"What, after what he did to you?" He asked incredulously.

"Well I basically declared war on Glimmer tonight, I told her I wouldn't give him up just so he could go and be with her. Katniss shook her head, "Besides, I'm guilty this time too." She looked into Peeta's eyes. "I'm not going to say anything to him about us, or what we did unless he comes clean about Glimmer." Katniss assured him.

"So what's the plan?"

"I don't know… there is no plan. I guess I just have to stay with him, I mean, it's not like he broke up with me to be with her. Is it really so bad if I stay with him so he can't? It's obviously not a big deal to him." Katniss reasoned.

Peeta sighed and paced the room, running his hand through his perfectly tousled hair. "It is that bad if it means you are going to be miserable." He stopped pacing the room, walked to Katniss and tilted her chin to look into her sad grey eyes, he seemed conflicted. Peeta with the magic for smooth talk was at a loss for words, she tried to figure out what he was trying to say, but failed, and in the end he gave her a light gentle kiss and said, "If you're ever looking to take a break from putting yourself through torture just to get back at them and have some fun for a while, I'm always here for you. Always." He gave her a reassuring smile and just before he left he turned and looked to Katniss and said "You know Kat, if it weren't for Gale scaring the life out of me as a kid, I would have never stopped chasing you."

Katniss got ready for bed and fell into a fitful sleep, thinking nonstop about the revelations that were made to her that evening, and also worried about the next day at school. She woke determined to do exactly what she told Glimmer she would do. Katniss wanted a new look for herself, to be the exact opposite of how Glimmer would be dressed, she wanted to look as rebellious as she felt, and she wanted no similarity to the crowd that she had been hanging out with. She wanted to look dangerous, she dressed in her knee high black boots, a sleeveless soft orange coloured dress that reminded her of a sunset and only came down mid-thigh, she'd owned this dress for years but had barely worn it because she'd actually bought it freshman year to try to get Peeta's attention. While she hadn't gotten any wider he had grown several inches and hadn't had the courage to wear such a short dress to school. She completed the look with a thin gold belt and her leather jacket over top. She added a little more dark makeup to her eyes than she normally wore, and her hair, which she usually braided back, was let loose and wavy.

Madge usually drove her to school loved her new look and gave her seal of approval. They arrived at school and parked in the senior's area where many of their friends had already arrived. Katniss saw that her outfit was indeed completely different from what Glimmer wore. Glimmer looked great in anything, and was wearing a pink dress with heals. Both girls equally pretty, but Katniss' was definitely her own style and stood out from the others. Marvel and Peeta were had been standing together talking when they spotted her. Both of their mouths dropped open at the sight of her. Katniss looked over at Glimmer and the two girls glared at each other.

Marvel ran over and hugged her around her waist, picking her up and spinning her in a circle. Katniss laughed Marvel kissed her deeply in front of everyone. When the school bell rang they broke apart, she felt triumphant when she saw Glimmer flip her hair in annoyance, but what really pleased her oddly enough was seeing the way Peeta could not take his eyes off of her. She and her friends compared their class schedules, she found that most of her friends were in most of her classes, especially her homeroom English class. When school began they went to their class as normal where Marvel was able to choose his seat directly beside her. During their lunch period Glimmer pointed out the fact that she and Marvel were the only two who shared a business class and that they could sit near each other and exchange notes or be partners for projects together, and of course Katniss wouldn't mind right? To which Katniss kissed Marvel and agreed that it was not going to be a problem at all, even though she was seething inside at the thought.

When she and Marvel parted ways and she watched as Glimmer walked beside him on their way to their class. She stood for a moment fuming until Peeta stepped next to her. She looked at him and he had his winning smile on his face.

"Chemistry with Dr. Beetee? I'll totally side beside you and you know, be your partner for projects and stuff" Peeta said over enthusiastically, mimicking Glimmer's comments from earlier. Katniss laughed, rolled her eyes, and gave him a playful punch in the chest as the two headed for their class. "I have an idea for a game," Peeta said.

"Oh, what's that?" Katniss asked, glad that Peeta was able to lighten her mood.

The second bell indicating that class would start was due to go off any minute, so the halls were practically empty. Peeta did a quick check over his shoulder then threw open a door that she hadn't really even noticed was there and pushed her inside. It was the world's smallest maintenance closet, barely big enough for the two of them, and was filled with generic janitor cleaners and tools. Everything happened so fast and she was taken by surprise, Peeta was kissing her, she put her hand on his chest and pushed him away.

"The game is, every time they get to be alone together, we get to be alone together." Peeta said with a playful smile. "Welcome to the Mellark make out closet, handed down to be from my brothers before me, and only costs me some free bread and pasties to the janitorial staff every Friday. The lock has been broken for years, but they never fix it as long as I can keep them on my good side."

"Wow, I feel so special, a closet where you have made out with every other girl in this school? How will we ever keep people from catching on to our secret?" Katniss replied, heavy on the sarcasm. "Besides, they are not alone together like this." She indicated between the two of them before leaving the closet. Peeta followed after her quickly. "People probably watch that door like a hawk waiting to see who you have in there next." She remarked. They went to their class and sat in the last two remaining seats in the class that were one in front of the other, Peeta taking the one directly in front of hers. The rest of the school day finished out without any more incidents. She met up with her friends near their cars in the parking lot after school where they hung out for a while before going their separate ways home.

Marvel drove Katniss home, she asked how his day had gone. She played good girlfriend and did not lead on that she knew what had happened between him and Glimmer. She kissed him dutifully when he dropped her off, she hoped she hid her resentment well, and with a smile and wave she went into the house.

She spent some time with Prim, asking how her first day of school had gone, when her mother came home she stayed and played the happy daughter and answered all of her questions. Katniss was still working on breaking down the walls of resentment within her for all the years of responsibility her mother had thrust upon her.

Katniss was finding it hard to concentrate, her mind kept drifting to Marvel and the hurt that he had caused her, and wondered if he would be hurt to find out about her and Peeta, she had a flash of a thought that she hoped that he did because he deserved to hurt. Her mother picked up on her mood and asked if there was anything she wanted to talk about. Katniss told her that she just thought she needed to go for a walk, she left the house, once again happy for a chance to clear her mind. Being out in the fresh outdoors was one of the things Katniss loved best, and district 12 was one of the least urban of the districts. It was lush with forests and parks and the streets, and the yards of homes were lined with mature trees. She walked until she found herself in the small merchant village which held many small businesses like the butchers, Greasy Sae's Diner, small clothing stores, and of course Mellark's Bakery. Katniss went inside, knowing that Peeta was more than likely working inside. He often helped to close the bakery after school, they kept short hours during the week, closing just before dinner as most of the shops in the merchant quarter, the traffic picked up here on the weekends when people would come from other districts or even the Capital, Mellark's bakery was known city wide for having the best bread, pastries, and cakes. This kept the Mellark's one of the wealthiest families in the district, which is how the Mellark's were able to afford designer clothing and expensive cars and excellent college educations for their sons. It was we'll known that Mrs. Mellark liked to flaunt their wealth, so her sons got the best of everything for all to see.

Upon hearing the familiar bell that chimed when the door opened Peeta came out from the back of the bakery. She smiled widely at him, he didn't look like his normal put together self as he did at school. His hair had evidence of a light dusting of flour, he wore his white Mellark's Bakery t-shirt, which nicely showed off his biceps. He looked just like a normal teenager, and he looked somewhat off guard to see Katniss on the other side of the bakery counter.

"What? Girls don't visit you at work often?" Katniss teased. "This isn't the first time I've seen you at work before."

"I know, it's just..." He shook his head at a loss for words again. She noticed this happened a lot around her, and wondered if other girls had this effect on him.

"You said anytime I needed to have some fun to come looking for you." She flirted. Peeta nodded his head and silently handed her a cheese bun. "Did you know these are my favourite?" She asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it's what you normally order. This isn't the first time I've noticed you come in on my shift you know." Peeta flirted back.

While Katniss blushed a little, thinking of all the times she had eagerly volunteered to pick up the baked goods her mother needed or bringing Prim just to look at the cakes that were so beautifully decorated.

Finally she got the nerve up to ask if he would want to come to her house after dinner so they could help each other do their homework. They arranged the time, exchanged phone numbers for texting each other, and after a few more minutes of innocent flirting she left and when home in a significantly better mood. She had a nice family dinner and received some teasing from Haymitch and Prim when she told them who would be coming to help her do homework.

When Peeta did arrive he was polite, and again brought treats for her family and talked to them before heading to the den with Katniss. She enjoyed the time they spent together, and considering it was the first day of school it really didn't take much time at all to get through their homework. When they finished Peeta packed up his books and looked at her seriously. "Katniss, I don't know what you are trying to do to me, but you are driving me crazy." He pointed to generally all of her, she hadn't really thought about it, but being in the comfort of her own home, she had removed her boots and jacket. She was wearing only the short sleeveless dress that she had put on earlier, which she had to admit, showed off her curves and legs nicely and left little to the imagination.

She smiled at Peeta, and wondered how far her dangerous and rebellious attitude would take her. She made a decision then to quickly straddle his legs and she was pretty much sitting on him, looking directly in the eyes. "What if that's what I was going for? What if I want to drive you crazy Mellark?" She asked and kissed him passionately. He held his hands gently on her waist. It occurred to her then that this was the most intimate she had ever been with any guy, even Marvel. Their relationship was largely public, kisses always in front of others, opportunities alone only came only when they were in his car together, she was constantly thinking of how their relationship would be perceived by others. She did not need to consider this with Peeta, this was for the two of them alone, she could allow herself to be as free as she wanted to be with him. He had been the one to say after all that this was just for fun.

She pulled away from the kiss and smiled at him, both a little breathless. Peeta shook his head like he didn't know what had just happened, but was also grinning from ear to ear.

"Are you sure you'll be ok with this? Just for fun?" She asked.

"Oh, I'm completely ok with this," he indicated to the position she currently had him in. "And I think I'm well known for 'only having fun'." Peeta teased referring to his reputation around school. "Are you ok with this? I don't mind playing as a piece in your games Katniss, but you've never really done anything like this before. Are you sure you can play the game? You're dealing with pros here Kat, me and the others, well, we've been at this for years. We know how to not get hurt." Peeta explained somewhat worriedly.

"Ok, I think we can do this. As long as no one gets hurt." Katniss began, "I'll stay with Marvel, and when things get too hard or he makes me too angry, I'll call you."

"It's pretty awesome to be the guy who gets all the benefits." Peeta laughed, kissing her again. "ok, no one gets hurt, and we can still have some fun."

"Sweetheart, it looks you're done studying for the night." Haymitch's voice caused the two teenagers to jump apart quickly. "Why don't you send the boy home." Haymitch showed no signs of leaving until Peeta was gone, so Peeta gathered his things, said goodnight to Katniss and Haymitch and left.

Later as Katniss was getting ready for bed she reflected on the turn of events in her life over the past 24 hours. She thought she had rebuilt a solid relationship, but it turned out she had been fooled. Now with Peeta she felt like she at the very least had some power, she would not be the innocent girlfriend, ignorant to her boyfriend's indiscretions. She didn't have to feel bad about Peeta either because he played this game so well, and he didn't mind the sneaking around. Being with Peeta would be easy, in a way, he was everything she needed right now. No attachments, just harmless fun, a good partner for the game.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hey I don't know if I need to keep saying that I don't own THG or characters or anything, but I just thought I'd add a reminder here as a precaution. I had to re-read chapter 4 to write this one, found a hilarious error (lol, pasties) and added a sentence or two near the middle to end of the chapter. I suggest you take a look, I don't think it'll prevent you from understanding what takes place in this chapter, but there's a slight reference or two to it in this one. Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

That weekend Madge hosted a pool party on Saturday afternoon. The teens were taking advantage of the still hot weather. Since Katniss lived closest to Madge she arrived very early to help her friend set up for the party. When they were finished Madge went inside to put on her bathing suit, Katniss knew that for the girls a pool party was more of a sit at the side of the pool and show off your body sort of thing, but it was rather hot so she decided to take a quick swim before anyone else showed up.

She loved to swim; she had done a few laps in the pool when there was a large splash beside her. She stopped her swimming and found Peeta in the pool beside her; under the water he grabbed her waist and pulled her close to his body. She responded quickly knowing that they had little time. He pushed her up against the pool wall as she wrapped her legs around his waist, getting as close to him as she possibly could. They kissed recklessly, and they pulled away completely breathless when they both could hear car doors shutting and the voices of their friends come from around the side of the house. Without saying a word they broke apart quickly and Katniss got out of the water. She went to her towel that was spread out beside the pool; Peeta must have been in a rush to get in the pool because his t-shirt and sandals were tossed carelessly on her towel. She thought this may raise suspicion, why would Peeta toss his things with hers? So she moved his sandals to one of the patio chairs and picked up his t-shirt to do the same when she stopped, it was her favourite colour, a very dark forest green. She quickly stuffed it into the bottom of her pool bag; she loved wearing guy's shirts sometimes, especially when the guy wearing it smelled as wonderful as Peeta.

She wrapped the lower half of her body in a sarong and went to meet her friends. She found Marvel and took her spot beside him. He kissed her cheek, a far cry from the mind numbing kiss she had just exchanged with Peeta; she looked at her feet, recalling the kiss, smiling at the thought of it. Yes, she had a weakness for Peeta, and if he was going to be pulling stunts like that she knew this thing between them was going to be very dangerous. She knew it was mostly because she didn't want to stop him from doing things like that. It left her exhilarated, she'd never felt anything like it before.

She was by Marvel's side all afternoon, and Glimmer was not at the party, so he was once again playing his role as good boyfriend. Overall, it was a really pleasant afternoon; everything was as it had been with Marvel before the summer. As the evening went on and the sun had set she was finding it easier to be with him, her anger through the course of the day had faded away. Madge's father was a politician in their town, her home was the biggest in the district and her yard backed on to a wooded area. Marvel stole Katniss away from the party and they found themselves under a willow tree, hidden from their friends for a moment alone. She wore a sleeveless dress that she had changed into when the sun had set, she was obviously cold so Marvel held her close, and he kissed her deeply. She found herself back tracking, she wanted to forget about his lies for the moment and lose herself to his familiarity and be as they were before, and so she internally allowed herself to fall under his spell that he could cast over her. He was sweet as candy when he wanted to be, she let him tell her how much he loved her and how there was no one else like her, he looked at the promise ring that he had given her with her birthstone in it.

"Do you remember the night that I gave this to you?" He asked.

She looked at the ring and nodded her head. She did remember. It was their first valentine's day together; they had been together for nearly two months. She was expecting it be her last date with him, but he told her his plans to take her to a nice restaurant in the Capital, and when she told Madge, Johanna, and Delly they told her he never did that for anyone else before.

She was dressed in a beautiful red dress, he was dressed in a suit, and her mom embarrassingly took pictures of them both before they left the house. After dinner they went back to her house, he revealed to her that he had fallen in love with her, and after a lot of thought he pick out the ring especially for her, and she accepted it. Relief had washed over her because she was sure that she had fallen for him too, he'd been such a heartbreaker before, she wondered what she could have done to be so lucky to have Marvel fall in love with her of all people.

Katniss was getting a little teary eyed at the memory of how they had started, the promises he had made to her, and how it turned out he could break her heart, but in a much more hurtful way than anyone before her. Marvel wiped a stray tear from her eye. She looked him in his dark brown eyes. "Where did we go wrong? Was it me?" She asked, referring to his indiscretion.

She was surprised by his reaction. She was expecting comfort, a hug of reassurance or something, instead he huffed in exasperation. "Please, don't bring that up. I thought we were past that." He stepped away from her and ran his hand through his hair quickly.

"I know, it's just, I think of it a lot." She wanted to add that she knew about what happened between him and Glimmer during his beach house trip as well, but she also wanted to see if he came clean on his own.

"Don't think about it, just forget about it. I hate myself enough for it; please don't look at me that way." He stepped to her and seemed to see the hurt and defeat in her eyes, she had let her guard down for a moment. His heart broke a little at the sight of her, seeing that his strong willed Katniss was struggling with her emotions. "I told you that wouldn't happen again." He kissed her, trying to fix her with his kiss, not knowing that she had found someone else's kisses could make her forget far better than his could.

He took her hand and together they walked back to their friends at the party. It was getting late, and so they said goodbye to their friends and Marvel drove Katniss the short distance to her home before heading back to his.

She went into her room and pulled out her bag that she had taken to Madge's and found Peeta's t-shirt inside. She held it up to her nose and inhaled his comforting scent, somehow, even through his soap and whatever colognes that he wore, he somehow always smelled like the bakery. The cinnamon, vanilla, and fresh bread smells always lingered on him. She put the shirt on with a pair of short pajama bottoms, and went upstairs to say goodnight to her mother and Haymitch. She wanted to spend some time with Prim, but found that she had a friend over for a sleepover, so she returned to her bedroom, and was both extremely surprised and confused to find a shirtless Peeta in her bedroom.

She slammed the door shut behind her. "Are you crazy? How did you get in here?"

He smiled at her, "I came in through the window with the broken lock. I figured that was code for 'Peeta visit me anytime you want'. I really hope Haymitch didn't hear that part, he would kill me if he found me in here wouldn't he?" He said playfully. "I walked to the party, and I really didn't want to walk all that way home without my shirt, and I had a feeling I would find the thief here, although it does look better on you than it does on me." Peeta stood and approached her, admiring her body as he walked towards her. "Now that I know my shirt has a good home you may as well keep it."

Katniss shook her head nervously and took the shirt off, leaving her in her sport bra that she normally wore to bed, and handed Peeta his shirt. "You need to leave now, what if my mom or Haymitch does come down here and find you here in my room. I would be dead." she whispered. She walked to her drawer to get another shirt to sleep in, she felt Peeta's strong hand on her shoulder, and traced a line with his finger down her arm and back up again. He gave her goose bumps, she closed her eyes and allowed his hands to roam her neck, back, and finally to wrap his arms around her waist in a hug so he could put his chin on her shoulder.

"Katniss, why did you break up with me? When we were kids?" He asked. She opened her eyes and looked at him as best she could from the side.

"I thought you said we never broke up." She teased lightly, trying to avoid giving an honest answer.

He looked as if he were going to say something when there was a knock on the door. They jumped apart from each other in a panic, she pointed to the closet and he ran as quietly as he could to hide inside, the door started to open and Katniss ran to the door to stop it from opening fully to allow him time to hide. She was somewhat relieved that it was only Prim, but was still terrified of what would happen if she knew Peeta was here.

"What do you want Prim? I'm half dressed!" Katniss exclaimed.

"You always walk around here dressed like that." Prim smiled as she rolled her eyes. "Besides, it's just me and Rue here." Katniss saw little Rue peeking at her from behind Prim's shoulder. Katniss and Prim's dad had been friends with Rue's dad through work, the two families knew each other well, and Rue was one of Prim's good friends.

"Ok, but you can't just come barging into my room like this." Katniss complained, she felt like she was sweating bullets.

"I'm not in your room first if all and I knocked first." Prim pointed out.

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"We're going to watch a movie here in the den and do our nails. Did you want to join us?" Prim asked.

"No thanks." Katniss said quickly and shut the door. Prim knocked again and Katniss whipped the door back open. "Yes?"

"You have all the good nail polishes, can we use them?" Prim asked.

Katniss walked around her room looking for the box of nail polish before realizing that they were of course in the closet. After peeking carefully at Prim she opened her closet as quickly as she could, she could see Peeta, and she prayed that from her doorway Prim couldn't, and got the box from the shelf as quickly as she could. She slammed the closet door shut and gave the box to prim. "Have fun, please don't disturb me tonight." Then shut her bedroom door and wished it had a lock.

She heard the two girls giggling as they walked away, and Peeta let himself out of her closet. "I guess you're stuck here until those two fall asleep." She sat on her bed and Peeta put on his shirt and joined her.

He looked at her smiling in a way that said he knew something she didn't. "What?" She asked.

"I really hope we can trust Prim, she totally saw me." He chuckled quietly. Katniss put her face in her hands and groaned. Peeta reached out and took her hands away from her face. "It'll be fine, she'll keep your secret, she's crazy about you." He pulled Katniss in for a light kiss.

They hung out in her room for hours. They talked and compared music they like to listen to, who liked which movies. They teased each other and joked with each other. Katniss allowed Peeta to initiate a very heavy uninterrupted make out session, when the hunger took over her body again she found herself voicing her desires and begged him to hold her closer, tighter. They were so dangerous together, she loved every minute of it, she didn't know how Peeta could satisfy her so completely, and at the same time make her body want so much more. When it got to be well past midnight Katniss worried that her sister and Rue would never fall asleep, to which Peeta agreed that he should be getting home. He removed his shirt and left it for Katniss.

"I thought you said you didn't want to walk home without at least a shirt on? Isn't that why you're here?" Katniss pointed out. Peeta got his backpack that he had taken with he had taken to the party, opened it, and pulled out a pullover hoodie and put it on.

"You keep it. Like I said, it looked better on you than me." And with that Peeta opened the window in her room and snuck out into the night. Katniss couldn't believe how she hadn't thought of just doing that earlier, of course he didn't need to leave from the same window he came in through, but maybe she didn't really want him to leave all that much.

Katniss was very pleased with the way her night had ended. Reconnecting with Peeta on a more personal level had been fun, and the way she let him explore her body had been fun too.

What Katniss didn't realize was that earlier in the night she had a bigger impact with Marvel than she thought as well. When he left the party he had time to reflect on the hurt he had caused her. Seeing her wall come down and her vulnerability exposed for him to see made him feel so bad and guilty about what he had done. He had gone to Glimmer's house directly from the party, he wanted to make it clear to her that things would between them were over, that he was going to be faithful to Katniss, and that the time at the party and the beach house were mistakes that he regretted deeply. Glimmer had been very angry with him and he left her house satisfied that he had gotten his message across and that she wouldn't be bothering them anytime soon. He felt bad that he did not come clean to Katniss about his mistake with Glimmer during his week away at the beach house. He had allowed Glimmer to be all over him, and had even had one night where he let his guard down and allowed himself to fall to her advances once again. He allowed her to suggest they be alone, he had taken her to his parents' bedroom where he had been sleeping for the week since they had been clear that was to be off limits to his friends. Glimmer was tall, blonde, all legs and curves; he wasn't immune to her body. They began to kiss, but the whole time he was thinking of how much this would hurt Katniss if she ever found out. She pulled out all the stops for him, but he just ended up feeling bad, and found that she didn't have the effect on him that Katniss did; he wanted to be doing this with her. So he had put the brakes on, saying that he had to make sure the guys didn't ruin the house, when really, he just wanted to get away from her to think. He had played these games with girls before, but being with Katniss was different, he loved her, and it hurt him to think of what he had just done, another betrayal.

When he was at Glimmer's house she had tried to convince him that they could continue on without Katniss knowing, but he knew he would just feel too guilty about it if he did. He did love Katniss, she was going to be his forever, and he didn't think there was anything she could do to change that, not knowing that Katniss had a weakness for a certain blonde of her own, and when she had been presented with the exact same proposal she had chosen differently than he just had.


	6. Chapter 6

The weekend passed quickly, Sunday morning Katniss went to the kitchen for breakfast cautiously, paranoid that her mother or Haymitch had surely seen Peeta either sneak in or out of her bedroom and were waiting for her to arrive to breakfast. Everyone was in the kitchen already eating, Prim and Rue looked at Katniss and giggled their heads off, Katniss' mom asked what was going on but Prim insisted it was nothing.

Later after Rue had gone home Prim deliberately opened the door to Katniss' room as if expecting to find someone there again. Katniss asked Prim if she was going to tell, to which she replied she wouldn't, but wanted the same curtesy of silence if Katniss ever found Prim in the same situation. Both girls laughed and spent the rest of the day together.

Monday morning Katniss and Marvel caught up to each other in the school parking lot and walked together hand in hand to their home room English class. They took their seats, as she glanced at Marvel she caught a glimpse of Peeta who was sat a seat ahead of him one row over in her line of vision. He had a sly grin on his face, it made Katniss look away from him to her hands, a deep blush starting in her cheeks as she thought of their risky make out session in her own bedroom. She remembered how he had laid her down in her head gently and how she had welcomed his kisses and daring touches so easily, wanting more and practically begging for it. She smiled and lightly giggled at the memory of it, at how exhilarating the whole experience had been.

"Katniss?" Marvel asked.

Katniss' mind was jolted from her thoughts, she looked to Marvel. "What?"

"What's so funny?" Wondering what had urged her to laugh softly to herself.

For a brief moment Katniss looked passed Marvel and locked eyes with Peeta's deep blue ones. She looked away, not realizing that Marvel had seen the look that the two had shared.

"Nothing, just something Prim said to me this weekend." Katniss lied.

The teacher walked into the room at that moment and began the class.

The month of September was busy, all of the guys in their circle of friends sighed up for their school football team, so they didn't have the time to hang out with the girls after school like they used to. Some of their friends started pairing off into couples of their own. Johanna and Cato, it seemed that Johanna's wit and sarcasm was a good balance to Cato's arrogance and brought him down a notch or two to be more like a regular person. Madge and Thresh were cute but didn't seem all that serious, Delly and a guy named Darius who they had never hung out with before but turned out to be really cool so he joined their circle of friends as well. Katniss noticed that Clove and Glimmer didn't hang out with them all that much anymore; they seemed to be chasing after other eligible guys from outside their circle of friends for a change.

Sometimes Katniss and Peeta would find a moment alone, usually after school she would wait around until the halls were almost bare and then sneak into the "Mellark make out closet" where Peeta would either join her or already be waiting. It made him late for football practices, but he assured her that it was worth it. She would usually have to wait around after on the days that they did this. She would have the choice to finish out watching the practices and get a ride home from Marvel after, or she'd hang out at the mall until Peeta would come pick her up and drive her home.

One Friday afternoon she had the urge to be daring again. Her mother needed some bread for dinner so Katniss volunteered to pick it up knowing that Peeta was working. She walked to Mellark's Bakery, when he heard the bakery door chime when it opened Peeta came out from the back. She went around the counter and practically jumped on him, kissing him recklessly. He took her into the back of the bakery, which was empty, and she ran her fingers through his soft hair while he kissed her back deeply.

She loved the feeling of his hand lightly pulling the hair on the back of her neck while he ran his hand through her hair, he held her waist tightly. She wished that there was a way for him to hold her even tighter, to be even closer to her. Her phone rang in her pocket, but she ignored it, lost in everything that Peeta was doing to her. He seemed in tune to her thoughts as he leaned her against one of baking tables lifting her slightly so she was sitting on it, she wrapped her legs around his waist, achieving the delicious closeness that she craved.

He phone rang again and they broke their kiss, breathless. She looked into his deep dark blue eyes before she pulled her phone from her pocket. She looked at the caller ID, and saw that it was Marvel. Wanting him to stop calling her she answered the phone.

"Hey Kat, where are you?"

"I'm at home." She lied.

"No, I'm here at your house. I came to see you, your mom has invited me for dinner, she said you went to the bakery, are you there? I'll come pick you up." Marvel explained.

Katniss immediately jumped off the bakers table and ran to the front of the store. "Yes, I'm still here, I mean, I just got here. I haven't even put in my order yet, I'll be here." She hung up the phone and immediately noticed that she was covered in flour from sitting on the bakers table and from Peeta touching her with his flour covered hands. Peeta came out from the back, and with his mischievous grin held out a damp cloth for her to clean herself up with.

"What did you come here for Katniss?" Peeta asked, with a bit of a grin on his face, but his eyes held a deeper question.

"What? What do you mean what did I come here for?" Katniss asked, confused by his question. "You said anytime I wanted to have some fun I should come to you."

"Things have been good between you and Marvel lately; I don't think any of us have heard from Glimmer in weeks." Peeta pointed out. "We're still playing this game, but I think we are the only two in it at this point."

Katniss nodded her head, she'd noticed that too lately but didn't want to admit it to herself, and Marvel had been the best boyfriend lately. Attentive, caring, it seemed he was always going above and beyond for her. They spent plenty of time together, she got the feeling that he was making up for something, but she still loved the rush of being with Peeta.

"I came here for a loaf of sourdough bread and half a dozen cheese buns." Katniss replied guiltily, she really didn't want to have to talk about this with Peeta at the moment. Marvel was on his way, this was not the time. Peeta silently handed her the order, she paid, and went outside where Marvels car was already waiting. He leaned over and she gave him a chaste kiss compared to the one she had just shared with Peeta.

They had dinner with her parents, and afterward they went downstairs to the den. They put on a movie, but after a while their attention was no longer on the movie. Marvel kissed her deeply and she returned his kiss eagerly. He began to lay her back on the couch, but as he was running his hand through her hair he stopped kissing her. She looked at him curiously, wondering what had happened to make him stop. He sat them both upright.

"What is this in your hair?" He asked. "Whatever it is looks like it's on your neck too."

She ran her hand along the back of her neck and felt a dusting of what could only be flour, she had only  
>wiped the flour from her clothing, and she forgot Peeta's hands had been in her hair as well. She stood, thinking as fast as she could for an explanation.<p>

An angry Marvel asked from behind her, "Why do I get the feeling I've been competing with Peeta Mellark?" She froze, not knowing what to say, she kept her back to him hoping that he would say something, anything that would give her a clue as to how much he knew about her and Peeta. "I see the way he looks at you, I don't know if you've seen it, but I have and I don't like it." He revealed in a kind of angry defeated voice that she'd never heard from Marvel before. "That's flour in your hair isn't it?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, but it's not what you think." Katniss lied with a stone cold look on her face, praying that he face didn't show the fear underneath.

"Oh, it's not? You were just at his bakery. I was here, at your house waiting for you for like ten minutes before I even called you. You're mom said you'd be back any minute." Marvel accused.

"The flour in my hair is from me and Prim making cookies earlier. It must have gotten there when I put my hair in a ponytail" Katniss lied desperately, keeping her features as controlled as she could despite shaking under her skin at the thought of being caught. Marvel still looked quite upset, but, seemed to be doubting the pieces he had thought he had put together. She took advantage of the doubt she saw on his face, walked up to him, and slowly took his hand into hers and held it to her lips for a reassuring kiss. Then she slowly dragged her hands up his arms, lingering on his shoulders, then up his neck and jaw, then finally held his cheek in her hand and looked into those brown doe eyes she had fallen in love with. "There's no one but you for me Marvel." She kissed him deeply and reassuringly, lovingly. "How could you even think that?" She questioned.

"I've seen the way you look at him; it's the same way you used to look at me, before Glimmer. You hardly look at me that way anymore." Marvel accused.

"You're jealous, that's all." She reassured, wishing that some miracle would happen at that moment to get her out of this situation. "It's kind of an honour actually; I've never seen you jealous before."

"You've never given me reason to feel this way before." Marvel said icily.

"And there's no reason for it now, I don't know what you think you saw, but there's nothing to worry about." Katniss lied. "if you've been having doubts about us that's on you, not me. Maybe you're looking for things that aren't there, and so what if I did notice the way he looks at me? Is it really so bad that I like the feeling that I'm not someone's second choice?" Katniss snapped.

"It's Peeta Mellark, the guy's a player. The looks that you two have been giving each other, you don't think I notice but I do, and I'm starting to think you want him too." Marvel hissed.

Katniss took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, keeping her features as controlled as she could despite shaking under her skin at the thought of being caught. "I don't know what you think you saw, but I haven't noticed, the way he looks at me." Marvel still looked quite upset, but, seemed to be doubting the pieces he had put together. She took advantage of the doubt she saw on his face, walked up to him, and slowly took his hand into hers and held it to her lips for a reassuring kiss. Then she slowly dragged her hands up his arms, lingering on his shoulders, then up his neck and jaw, then finally held his cheek in her hand and looked into those brown doe eyes she had fallen in live with. "There's no one but you for me Marvel." She kissed him deeply and reassuringly, lovingly. "How could you even think that?" She questioned.

"Cookies anyone?" Prim came in with a batch of cookies on a plate. She approached Marvel and Katniss, offering them each a cookie. "Katniss helped me bake them earlier, be careful, she may have accidentally poisoned them. You know Katniss' cooking, plus she wouldn't stop playing with her hair." Prim teased.

Marvel sighed with relief and laughed with Prim, the familiar ring of a text message came from his phone. He read it, and then gave Katniss a kiss on her forehead. "I've got to go." Marvel said.

"Ok, we're solid right?" Katniss asked worriedly.

"Yeah, it's just the guys are hanging out. I'm going to meet up with them, I'll call you later." They gave each other a deep reassuring kiss and he left. Katniss walked him to the door and waved to him as he left, then ran downstairs to the den and gave Prim the biggest hug, they both almost fell to the floor.

"Oh my god, you saved my life, you didn't have to do that, but thank you so much I owe you big time" Katniss gushed giddily. "How did you make cookies so fast?"

"They're from Mellark's Bakery. I just warmed them in the microwave and pushed them and made them look imperfect while they were still warm." Prim explained. "And yes you owe me big time."

"How did you know?" Asked Katniss.

"Mom sent me down here to check on you two and I heard pretty much everything." Prim revealed.

"Ugh, I'm so glad you did. I'd better warn Peeta." Katniss grabbed her phone and sent a quick text.

"Why are you doing this anyway?" Prim asked. "Seeing both of them at the same time?"

Katniss finished with her texting and looked at Prim. "Peeta's ok with it, I'm just having a little fun, no one is going to get hurt." Prim gave Katniss a look like she didn't believe her. "It's just a little fun. I'm going to make sure Marvel never finds out."

************

Peeta checked his phone casually; he and his friends were at a sports restaurant in The Capital watching a game on one of the many televisions having a guy's night. None of his friends brought their girlfriends; they'd been here for a couple of hours when Cato said that Marvel messaged him and said he was on his way.

Peeta hadn't really thought too much about it until he saw the message from Katniss. He swiped the screen on his phone to read it.

_He suspects something's up between us. We got into a bit of an argument but I think I took care of it. :)  
><em>  
>Peeta smiled and put his phone back in his pocket. He thought of Katniss, beautiful, strong Katniss. When she came in and surprised him at the bakery, the girl was daring. He has never known this side of Katniss even existed. Their secret relationship was more than he ever thought it would be, she seemed so innocent, but when he touched her she would whisper to him "more" and he would take his kisses and touches as far as he dared. It was definitely a bonus that he was not expecting. He thought he'd just help her out a bit, not make her feel like she was just a tool for Marvel to pay with, but it seemed that both Marvel and Peeta had somehow turned into hers, and Peeta was loving every minute of it.<p>

Peeta had been chasing other girls for years, trying to get Katniss Everdeen out of his head, but she somehow always had a hold on him that he could never explain, he's been in love with her since he'd first seen her in kindergarten. He couldn't help it; he opened his phone back up quickly to the selfie he'd take of the two of them the night he'd snuck into her room. In the picture she's wearing his t-shirt and they're kissing. Immediately after he took it she demanded he delete it, fearing someone would see it, he told her he did, but didn't.

Finally being with Katniss after years of pining for her was tremendous. When they had become a couple in the eighth grade Peeta was already planning on marrying her, he never wanted to let her go, but then she drifted away and he didn't know why. He thought maybe he had scared her off, that his love for her was more than her thirteen year old self could handle. He gave her the space she seemed to need, but fully planned on getting her back in high school, but it seemed that Gale had staked his claim on her and...well, that was history for him.

He was too nervous to approach her the year after Gale had graduated, afraid that she would shut him down, tell him that she was too madly in love with Gale to ever even give him a chance. Then when Marvel started to bring her around it was like a nightmare. Being so close to her and not able to touch her or kiss her, he remembered their adolescent kisses, but it was like she didn't remember them at all. Then she and Marvel started dating and Peeta knew he just had to wait for Marvel to get tired of her and move on, much to Peeta's distress this didn't happen. Why did everything with Katniss have to be so hard, why couldn't he just be with her?

Then his miracle happened, Katniss caught Marvel with Glimmer at that party, Peeta was actually coming down the hallway at the moment he saw Katniss rage up the stairs and open every door in a frantic search, it wasn't hard to guess what was going on. Peeta had been standing next to the door of the room she found Marvel and Glimmer in and was standing immediately beside her and saw all of her emotions pass through her face in that instant, even though she attempted to hide them. He wanted desperately to run after her, to make everything better for her, but decided it would be best to give Katniss space.

He decided to wait until the start of school, he didn't want to be down rebound fling, and he wanted to be the real deal. He planned on telling Marvel that he was going to make a real attempt for Katniss after their weekend at his parent's beach house.

It was a great week, Glimmer was there, and she was always by Marvel's side, stretched out next to him on the beach in her skimpiest bikinis, at the beach house partying late into the night with the guys, loving every minute of the attention. Then on the last night Peeta himself saw Marvel and Glimmer head into his parent's bedroom. Peeta was so happy, his friend had found someone else, he probably forgot all about who Katniss even was by now.

Marvel came out of the room about a half hour later, looking frustrated and followed by a triumphant looking Glimmer. Peeta gave him some time then joined him out on the patio that overlooked the beachfront.

"Nice, with Glimmer." Peeta began talking to Marvel as he pointed to the house hinting that he knew what had just happened. Peeta was surprised when Marvel put his hands in his face and groaned regretfully.

"That was a mistake." Marvel admitted.

"Why? Do you think Katniss will still care or something?" Peeta asked casually.

"Yes, she will. We're back together." Marvel revealed. "She was amazing to forgive me once, she'll never do it again. I'm such an idiot."

Peeta felt like he'd just been punched in the gut. He felt sick. Why were they back together, when did that happen? How could he do this to her twice? How could he do that to sweet innocent Katniss? She was the single hottest girl at school, and she was selfless, giving up her free time to help her mom out and take care of her sister. She was crazy awesome. "Yeah, you are an idiot. She's too good for you man." Peeta muttered.

"Oh god, I've got to fix this. She can't find out. She's the best thing to ever happen to me and I'm messing it up twice." Marvel ran into the house to do some damage control. Peeta sat there, dumbfounded.

He'd waited years for his chance with her, the right way, believing that fate would bring them together. This was it; he was done waiting his turn. He knew that he had to be with Katniss, he was done waiting.

So he'd pursued her at Cato's party, and she'd kissed him back, it was amazing, if it took everything he had he would we with her. He'd give up anything to be with her, an arm, a leg, his sanity to be with her in this life or any other. He needed to be with Katniss.

He played confident, but each time he proposed they sneak around he was terrified, then Glimmer served him a gift on a platter. An angry and rebellious Katniss who had come running into his waiting arms. Every time he was with her he did everything he could to try to wipe Marvel from her memory, and it seemed to be working. Over the past month and a half Glimmer had backed off, Marvel was being good to her again, on the surface they were as good as they were when they first became a serious couple, but she kept coming back to Peeta. He knew that meant something, and he wasn't going to give her up.

Marvel walked into the restaurant and joined his friends. On one level, Peeta and Marvel were friends, and Peeta did feel bad about what he and Katniss were doing to him, but on another he wasn't about to just give up on Katniss. Peeta was quiet despite his friends all talking loudly around him, Marvel seemed to be the only one who noticed.

"Hey Mellark, what's up with you?" Marvel asked.

"Nothing, man." Peeta said.

"I think Mellark is mourning the loss of his charm. What's the deal man, you haven't had a single girl since summer." Marvel teased.

"Yeah, normally you're playing the field, not so much this year. What's the deal, you got a girl you're hiding from us?" Cato asked.

"Yeah, she's everything I ever wanted and more." Peeta said sarcastically.

"Come on Mellark, you haven't checked out any of the hot freshman or anything." Cato said.

Peeta scoffed, "Who wants a freshman, and we're seniors, that would just be wrong. Like shooting fish in a barrel, it wouldn't even be worth it, they're practically babies."

"Ok, what kind of girl do you want?" Marvel asked.

Peeta couldn't help himself. He smiled mischievously, and leaned across the table to look at Marvel a little more meaningfully than he intended. "Maybe I want a girl just like Katniss."

Marvel's eyes darkened. "What's that supposed to mean?" He angrily, leaning forward in his seat as well so he could give Peeta a warning glance.

Peeta shook his head, and stood up. "Nothing, man, guy's I'm going to head out." He threw some money on the table to pay for his food and started to leave when Marvel stood up.

"No really, I want to know what you mean by that." He challenged.

"It's nothing." Peeta said trying to back off. He really didn't want to do this here in front of everyone.

"You're in to my girlfriend aren't you?" Marvel questioned.

"Who wouldn't be man, she's smoking hot." Peeta tried to play it off confidently.

Marvel walked up to Peeta so they were practically nose to nose. "I don't know what you think you are planning to try to do, but stay away from Katniss. She's mine."

Peeta rose up to the challenge and said "Then treat her better, before she's someone else's."

Their friends stood up and tried to calm the boys down, but the two were already arguing, Marvel accusing Peeta of trying to steal his girl, and Peeta denying every word of it, but somehow saying all the wrong things and making it more obvious how in to Katniss he was. Soon the two were pushing each other, and the restaurant staff got involved and everyone was trying to calm the boys down. It ended with Marvel taking a swing at Peeta and connecting with his jaw, splitting his lip. Both boys were in an all-out fight soon enough. Their friends broke it apart and soon everyone left.

It was late when Peeta got home; his parents were out, probably at their own party. Peeta walked around the house miserably, knowing that there was only one person who could make him feel better. He put his shoes on and walked down the darkened streets to the Everdeen house, he checked over his shoulder and at the windows making sure that no neighbours saw him, or that anyone in the house was awake. He went to the window, to the downstairs den, hoping Haymitch hadn't fixed the lock. It slid open silently and he let himself in quickly. He walked to Katniss' bedroom and silently opened the door, he went to her bedside and found her sleeping peacefully in his t-shirt again. His heart beat quickened at the sight of her, he loved her more than she would ever know. He removed his shoes and removed the covers and slid into the bed beside her. She awoke with a start.

"Shhh….it's just me. I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk; l thought maybe you wouldn't mind some company." Peeta whispered before she had a chance to really get scared.

"Peeta?" She asked incredulously

"Do you have many other guys climbing in your window at this time of night?" He asked half jokingly.

He heard her giggle lightly in the dark, "No, just you." Peeta wrapped his arms around her slender waist and put his head on her shoulder. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"I just want to hold you; can I just lay here with you for a while?" He asked.

"Always." She whispered to him in the dark.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N - A pretty short chapter where there's no real plot progress, just some nice fluff and fun, I intended more for this chapter but was just really happy with that last little bit. I think the next couple of chapters are going to start to get more serious again. I'm also playing around with the idea of making a prequel based on Katniss and Marvel, I'm not sure it's making sense anymore as to why she just doesn't leave him for Peeta, or if I'll just put some stuff in the chapters themselves like flashbacks. I'm really happy with my progress on this so far, not too bad for a first fanfic I hope. I got a couple of different ideas for how this is going to go, so I don't even know what's going to happen at this point. Exciting! :)

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><p>Chapter 7<p>

Katniss stroked Peeta's hair lovingly until she felt his breathing even out and knew that he was asleep. She didn't know what had happened to make him climb in through the window and into her room again, but whatever it was had obviously had him very upset. She planned to let him sleep for like an hour or so, but it was late and she fell asleep as well.

She awoke somewhat early in morning to a knock at her bedroom door and heard her mom call out her name. She was cold and noticed that her window had been opened slightly at some point in the night, and she glanced at Peeta who was still asleep beside her. Panicked that her mom would come into her room she hurriedly jumped from her bed and raced to the door, opened it as little as she could so she could fit through and close it behind her.

"Good morning mom." Katniss said pleasantly.

"Good morning Katniss, Marvel is here." Her mom said. She looked over her mother's shoulder and saw Marvel standing behind her.

"Wow, ok thanks mom." Katniss said, trying to walk away from her bedroom and lead everyone back to the den. She looked at Marvel as her mom headed up the stairs; he had a very badly bruised cheek. "Oh, hell, what happened?" Katniss asked as she tried to straighten her hair and look half decently presentable and not like she just rolled out of bed.

"Mellark and I got into a fight last night." Marvel stated simply. Katniss went to hug him and he winced as she tightened the hug around his waist. "Careful, he got a couple of good rib shots in. I'm kind of sore there."

She kissed his lips lightly. "What happened?" She asked.

"Just…I don't know. He's definitely into you." Marvel tried to explain. "It just got out of hand."

Katniss shook her head at him. "Was that really necessary? You didn't see me and Glimmer fighting like animals. What did he say exactly?"

"He just made it so obvious that he's into you, and when I told him to back off he just made a couple of smart ass comments that I didn't like…just…one thing led to another."

"You should apologize to him. I'm sure whatever he said wasn't worth all this." She waved to his cheek and sore body. "He's your friend." At the realization of what had happened Katniss internally felt guilty, knowing that really, Marvel had every right to do what he did, and knowing Peeta, he probably had said something to practically ask for it.

"I'm not apologizing to him. He needed to know that he'd better not try anything with you." Marvel said somewhat angrily.

"You got jealous, and he got you all wound up over nothing. I just told you last night nothing was going on, and your solution was to go out and fight with your best friend?" Katniss tried to reason with him, she put her hand on her hip and looked at him with an expression that said he should have known better. "You know him, he was probably just kidding around with you and you took it too seriously."

Marvel looked at her from her feet to her face. "Whose shirt are you wearing?"

Katniss looked down at her clothing. She was wearing incredibly short black shorts that were just visible under Peeta's green t-shirt. Katniss knew she had to think fast. "Isn't it yours?" She asked lamely.

"No it is not mine, it's his." Marvel said through clenched teeth.

"I picked it up near my towel at Madge's beach party. I just assumed it was yours." Katniss recovered.

"Well it's not, take it off." Marvel said angrily. "That's Peeta's shirt." He took his phone from his pocket and scrolled through a few pictures. When he found the one he was looking for he gave Katniss his phone. She looked at the photo; it was a group shot of the guys at the beach house. Sure enough, Peeta was wearing the exact shirt that Katniss was wearing now, but she could not believe her luck at who else was in the picture. "See? I told you, that's his shirt. What are you really doing with it?" He asked again suspiciously.

"Marvel, I told you how I got it. Now, I want to know why Glimmer is in this picture. You didn't tell me she was at the beach house." Katniss replied with an icy tone. She watched as the colour seemed to drain from his face. "Are you hiding something from me? I haven't seen any pictures from the beach house trip; I didn't even think you had any." She tossed his phone back to him, daring him to reply. He seemed at a loss for words. "It looks like I'm the one who has a reason to be angry here."

"Ok, maybe I jumped to conclusions." Marvel seemed to suddenly back track.

"Yes, I think you did. Look, I just woke up, I'm barely awake. Can you please, maybe give me some time here to collect my thoughts, take a shower maybe? Go home, I'll call you later." Katniss reasoned.

Marvel nodded in agreement. He started to leave, but before he did he turned to Katniss, "Nothing happened, just so you know, between Glimmer and me at the beach house."

"And nothing happened between me and Peeta." Katniss assured, realizing that they were both lying to each other.

Katniss saw Marvel out and but this time she didn't wave to him as he left as she usually would. As she went through the kitchen she piled a plate with food, he mother had cooked a big breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Katniss asked her mom what her plans were for the day. Her mom told her that she and Haymitch had an appointment to look at venues for the wedding, and that they would be leaving shortly. Katniss told them to have fun and said that she was going back to bed, Prim hadn't even woken up yet, and most likely wouldn't until noon or later.

Katniss took her food to her bedroom. Peeta was checking his phone when she entered. When he came into her room the night before it was too dark to see his face clearly, but as she looked at him now she saw that he had a small cut on his lip and another cut above his eyebrow.

"So, who won?" She asked sarcastically. She put the plate of food down on the bedside table and gingerly took his face into her hands and kissed both of his cuts.

"I think I did." Peeta said smiling. "I'm the one who got to spend the night with you, and I didn't see you kissing his battle scars." Peeta gave her a smile. "Nice save by the way." He commented as he tugged on her t-shirt.

"You are dangerous Peeta Mellark." Katniss said as she shook her head. "I guess we are going to have to lay low for a while." Peeta shook his head in agreement, but pulled her onto his lap so she was straddling him and gave her a deep kiss, it hurt his lip so bad, but it was completely worth the pain. "What did you say to him?" She asked.

He shrugged, "I said a lot of stuff, but mainly I think what really pissed him off was he could tell how much I meant some of it." He took bit of her hair in his hand and began to play with it. "The guys noticed I haven't had a new girl since the summer, Marvel asked something like what I was waiting for and I said something like someone like you." He admitted.

"Are you kidding? Peeta that's practically a confession, it's no wonder he got so angry." She sat beside Peeta on the bed and handed him the second fork that she had snuck out of the kitchen with her. They shared a few bites off the food before she asked thoughtfully, "You really haven't had a new girl since you've been with me?"

Peeta looked deep into those clear grey eyes he loved so much. "You've been everything I need. Why would I need to look for someone else?" He replied, trying to hide the depth of his love for her, he was afraid that she would see through it and get scared off like she did all those years ago. Katniss was like a wild animal, she needed space to feel safe. "You take up most of my time, besides, I promised to be at your disposal whenever you call. I think another girl would notice if I kept taking off on her for hours on end." He added half jokingly.

"Maybe you should find someone else." She said lightly.

"Do you really think there will be enough room in the 'Mellark Make Out' closet for three of us?" He teased.

She punched him lightly in the chest. "No, don't bring someone to our closet. Just someone for show, you know, so we can avoid suspicion."

"Why can't we just be together?" He asked as seriously as he dared.

She was quiet for a moment before brightening. "That's a really good idea, let's take the day to be together. Like, let's do some real couple stuff."

That was not what Peeta meant, but he wasn't about to turn it down either. "Ok, sounds good. What do you want to do?" He asked.

"Everything, I can be mad at Marvel for the day, the guys won't expect you and Marvel to do anything together today. It's perfect, we'll have fun." Katniss said eagerly.

They arranged a time that Peeta would come to pick her up. They finished the food that Katniss brought downstairs for the both of them and waited for her mom and Haymitch to leave. When Peeta left she spent a bit of time with Prim, telling her everything that happened. Then she and Prim went downstairs so Katniss could get ready for her day. At Prim's insistence Katniss wore something that she would never usually wear. It was a very floral dress that her mom had insisted would be prefect for a fall day. It was very pretty, the floral pattern was blue and brown, but it really didn't fit Katniss' rebellious style that she strongly adopted this year so she hadn't worn it to school yet. She completed the look with a loose brown cardigan and brown belt and a pair of ankle high boots that she didn't wear often. She wore her hair loose and wavy because Peeta had mentioned that he liked it when it was down because she didn't do it very often. She was pleased with Peeta's reaction of obvious approval when he picked her up later that afternoon.

They did everything that they could think of. Peeta thought it would be fun to try to teach Katniss to learn to drive his car. So they went to a nearly deserted parking lot where Peeta gave her a chance to try, it was a manual car so it was very difficult for her to concentrate on pushing the clutch in and time that with switching the car into gear. She stalled the car so many times, and every time it happened the car would jerk to a stop, causing their bodies to jerk violently but at the same time leaving them breathless from laughing at her inability to do it. Somehow that turned into a very lengthy make out session.

They went to dinner in District 10 at an old fashioned style diner that was known for having the best burgers around and afterward they went to a movie on the Capital. It was a wasted because despite the theatre being packed like a typical Saturday night, they really couldn't keep their hands off of each other. They were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't see Marvel and Cato.

"Hey, isn't that Peeta with a new chick?" Cato pointed his friend out from across the theatre.

Peeta really was the last person that he wanted to see that night. Despite feeling bad for straight up accusing Katniss of feeling something for Peeta, he was totally convinced that Peeta was into her. At this point all he had really done was make Katniss and Peeta both angry with him. When he called Katniss earlier she had said that she was really angry with him now and wasn't ready to speak to him and that she would call him the next day. Marvel hadn't really figured out what to do about Peeta yet, sure, he was into his girl, but really everyone knew that Peeta Mellark would chase anything in a skirt. He felt so bad, and he was moping around the house, he finally decided he needed to get out of there. He called Cato and asked him to do something with him, so they decided going to see movie was as good a thing to do as any. They picked some movie that they both knew neither one of their girlfriends would see with them in a million years.

Marvel casually looked to where Cato pointed, and he felt his stomach bottom out for a split second. He was sure that the girl that Peeta had his hands all over was Katniss. He took a few startled steps toward the couple then stopped. Whoever the girl was resembled Katniss, but that definitely wasn't her, the dress she wore was nothing like Katniss' style. He'd never seen her wear those shoes before, but whoever the girl was had awesome legs, just like Katniss. Her hair was dark like Katniss', the resemblance was there, but it wasn't her.

"Wow, he wasn't kidding when he said he wanted a girl just like Katniss. That girl looks a lot like her." Cato commented. The two were looking at Peeta when he pulled away from the girl and noticed them both looking at them as he glanced over the girl's shoulder. Peeta cockily smiled and waved at the two as he led her inside the auditorium that their movie was playing in. She didn't turn so that they could see her face, but there was something about her that was so familiar. "Looks like you two got in to it over nothing man, he's got a girl, and maybe he was just trying to tell us she did look a lot like Katniss." Cato tried to reason.

"Yeah, maybe." Marvel said unconvinced. There was something about the girl, her walk, her laugh, it had to be Katniss. They stood in the middle of the theatre lobby for a moment more, Marvel was almost convinced that he should go in just make sure that it wasn't, but afraid that it was. He stood there trying to make a decision.

"You want to go in there don't you?" Cato asked.

Marvel looked to his friend; he didn't know what to do. The thought of 'what if it is her?' running through his mind. Marvel really did not want that girl to be Katniss, he would be devastated. "No, I'm just thinking…I don't know. That's not her right?"

"Definitely not, dude. Katniss wouldn't go out with Mellark. She's a serious girl; she wouldn't want a player like him. No way." Cato assured. "But, if it's just going to drive you crazy all night do it, man. Go in there; just put your mind at ease."

Marvel made up his mind to do it, and had just taken a few steps toward the auditorium where Peeta and the girl had gone when Peeta himself came walking out. He held his hand out to give Cato a fist bump. "What's up guys?"

Peeta and Marvel looked at each other and seemed to size each other up, both not really knowing where they stand with each other after their fight the previous night.

"Hot chick you have there, I guess we were wrong about you not able to pull the chicks in like you used to." Marvel commented.

"Yeah, she's pretty awesome. She's a real girl on fire; smoking hot and I can't keep her off me half the time." Peeta said in a joking manner but with a bit of seriousness in his voice.

"What's her name?" Marvel asked.

"I don't think I should tell you that." Peeta said darkly.

"Why not?" Marvel asked taking a step toward Peeta in a manner meant to intimidate.

"Well I thought we were going after each other's girls now, right?" Peeta said rising to the challenge that Marvel seemed to be setting up. "Maybe I want her for myself tonight."

Cato laughed in a manner that was over the top and intended to cut the tension that was obviously growing between the two friends. Peeta and Marvel glanced at Cato and both stood down, Peeta said he was getting popcorn for him and his date, and the three parted ways.

Peeta returned to his seat with Katniss. She asked what took so long, and he answered that the lines were really long. After the movie Peeta was weary of running into Marvel and Cato, but thankfully it seemed the two movies had different end times and he got Katniss to the car without her ever knowing how close they had just come to being caught.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N - I don't know if this chapter comes across as very final, more to come.

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><p>Chapter 8<p>

Katniss came home from her date with Peeta thrilled. She didn't want it to end so she suggested to Peeta that it might be a good idea for him to climb in her window once again that night. He dropped her off at home and went home to drop of his car and sneak out of his own house.

Katniss came home, saw her mom and Haymitch for a bit, they asked how her night was, and Katniss told then it was the best. Katniss was especially happy when they casually told her that Prim was out at a sleepover at one of her friend's house so she would not be bothering Katniss tonight. She had just changed out of her date clothes and into something more comfortable. She had just walked back into the upstairs living room to spend some more time with her mom and Haymitch when the doorbell rang. She went and answered it herself and found Marvel on the other side of the door. He had this kind of tortured look on his face, and his normally perfectly styled hair looked as if he's been running his hands through it constantly.

"Kat, I know you're mad at me right now. But I really need to talk to you." Marvel said so desperately that she let him in.

Her mom took Katniss aside and protested, saying that it was almost midnight and she'd already been out all day. When her mom went to ask Marvel to go home and that whatever it was could wait until tomorrow she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the boy, so she agreed to an hour before he needed to leave.

Katniss took Marvel to the downstairs den. He turned and looked at her with sadness and regret in his eyes. "Ok, I'm ready to admit it. I cheated on you again in the summer with Glimmer while I was at the beach house." Katniss sat down on the couch stunned. She really did not believe that he would ever come clean with the truth. "Nothing happened, we barely made out, I couldn't stop thinking of you and how much it would hurt you to find out. I'm so sorry." Marvel sat beside her and took her hands into his own and continued. "I completely made sure she knew that would never happen again, I think that's why none of us have seen much of her lately. I thought it was bought, and I thought I could keep this from you, but the guilt has been eating away at me." Marvel finished.

Katniss was stunned into speechlessness. She wasn't expecting this tonight; she had always promised herself that when he came clean about Glimmer she would come clean about Peeta. It was too much, she wasn't ready to let go of him yet. She didn't want to let go of Peeta, but looking at her tortured Marvel broke her. She began to cry, hard, the dreaded sobbing ugly cry. The one you can't stop no matter what, and she didn't know why she was crying at that moment. It could have been from the fact that Marvel was admitting that once again he had broken her heart, or it could be that if she didn't tell him about Peeta now she would be doing the exact same thing to him.

She had been able to fool herself up to this point. Thinking that no one would get hurt in this, she clutched her chest, her heart hurt again. This time she did it to herself, and deep down she knew something like this was going to happen. Marvel hugged her tightly and kissed her tears as they fell, he cooed comforting words into her ear; he said it was totally his fault; he would spend a lifetime making up for what he did to her.

Still sobbing, Katniss shook her head in disagreement, "No, you're not the only one." She started.

Marvel frantically kissed her lips to stop her from saying more. "Yes it was me, I'm totally to blame." He assured her.

"No," she sniffed at her tears and willed herself to stop so that he would listen to her "you haven't been the only one...for me." She couldn't look him in the face. There was stunned silence.

"What?" Marvel asked incredulously.

"There's been someone else for me too." Katniss said. "I've known about Glimmer for a while. I just...was angry."

Now it was his turn to be speechless. "Ok." He said with a disbelieving look on his face. "Ok, we can get through this." He ran his hand through his hair. "Was it Mellark? Please tell me it wasn't him." Marvel said in a stained voice.

"Does it matter?" She asked. The look that he gave her told her that it did. She didn't want to ruin their friendship. This was supposed to be an easy thing; she couldn't be that selfish and ruin a friendship for this thing that she had started. "It wasn't." She lied.

"Then who?" He asked desperately.

"Just a guy, some football player from another school." She lied, hoping that he wouldn't see through it.

He nodded his head, wanting to believe the lie himself. "So nothing serious? Like you saw the guy once?" He asked. Katniss nodded with a whimper; if he knew the truth He wouldn't be so forgiving. "Ok, we've both done something wrong. We can work through this. We're solid right?" He asked, trying to convince himself as well as Katniss. She nodded her head in agreement. He kissed the top of her head and hugged her close. "We can work through this. You're my forever Kat." Her heart broke at his words. He used to say that to her a lot. It had been so long since the last time he told her that, she had forgotten all about it. She gave a little sob, he kissed away more tears.

Her mom called down the stairs that it had been an hour. When they went upstairs it seemed that her mom and Haymitch knew they needed a moment alone and were not in the kitchen or living room. They gave each other a reassuring hug and deep kiss at the door. Marvel promised theta everything would be better in the morning, and he left.

Katniss went downstairs, her mind reeling at what had just happened. She collapsed on the floor, crying for all the mistakes she had made, the bad decisions that had led to this. She was miserable for what she knew was about to happen. She needed to end things with Peeta, and this realization led to the next in that she didn't want to.

Oh gosh, her heart hurt so badly. This time she had really done it.

She was lying on the floor in a fetal position in the den when he came to her like she knew he would. She thought that she had cried all her tears, but when she rolled over to look him in the face, they came in new waves. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. He loosened the braid from her hair and it fell in waves around them.

Wordlessly he picked her up from the floor and carried her to her room and laid her gently on the bed. Her heart wanted him so badly, at least this one last time. They needed this one last time to say goodbye to each other. He looked into her eyes and saw the desire there. He removed her shirt and she removed his t-shirt and hoodie that he had been wearing. They kissed so gently, lovingly. Peeta touched her starting with her leg and tracing his fingers up her body, it sent pleasurable tingles everywhere in her body. She felt like she had a fever, her body was on fire for him like never before, everywhere.

He kissed her stomach and worked his way up, the parts of her breasts that were exposed above her bra, he touched her everywhere through her clothing until even that wasn't enough, and he slid his fingers underneath in the places she most wanted him to.

They worked slowly together, satisfying each other in every way they could. When she felt him hesitate she would whisper to him that it was what she wanted, she wanted more, harder. They came dangerously close to taking it too far, but they didn't. He stayed until the sun began to rise, they had communicated nearly without words at all to this point. They were lying in a satisfied blissful bubble, he was lying on top of her with his head over her heart, and she was stroking his hair. It was going to hurt, but it needed to be done.

"He knows." She said simply.

"Yeah, I know." He whispered. "I saw his car; I waited until he left to come back to you. When I saw you crying I figured that was what had happened."

"Marvel and I are going to work things out. We need to stop this thing between us Peeta." She said emptily. They looked each other in the eyes, deep blue and stormy grey, clashing in a heartbreaking stare.

"Why did you break up with me the first time Katniss?" He asked seriously. She looked away, knowing that she had blamed her mom all those years ago, but coming to terms with the truth now.

"I loved you so much. It scared me, my mom practically died for a while when my dad did. I can't love someone like that, and I definitely would with you. It scares me that someone can wrap themselves so completely around a person that their heart would starve without that other person." Katniss whispered fighting more tears.

"But your mom found someone else." Peeta said.

She looked at Peeta and let her tears fall. "And I did too. I'll never love Marvel like I love you, and he'll never love me the way you do."

"That's not the way it's supposed to work Katniss." Peeta said, unable to accept the fact that he was losing this girl he had loved for as long as he could remember simply because she loved him too much. He stood up and put on his discarded jeans and t-shirt. "I'm crazy for you, I know you can see it." He didn't really know what to say. "I know you're crazy about me too. You can try this, try to stay away and deny that you don't want this or that you can live without it, but you know what, our lives are already wrapped around each other completely." With that last remark he left out her window.

Heartbroken, she fell apart again, not wanting to believe what he had just said. She saw his hoodie on the floor next to her bed, she put it on and inhaled his scent that remained on the sweater, she cried herself to sleep wearing it. It was comforting, she was so thankful that he left this one thing behind for her to help heal her now scarred heart.

How did she manage to play this game with the one person who could bring her down so completely?


	9. Chapter 9

A/N - Thank you so much everyone for the positive feed back in your comments, and to all who have either favourited or followed my story so far, I love the comments so far and try to take the feedback to heart. More to come, we all know what happens at the 9th chapter right? The story changes, I wasn't planning on this but I have a lot of ideas for things to come!

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><p>Chapter 9<p>

Katniss allowed herself the next day to be a shell of her formal self, to mourn the loss of what she had realized too late had happened.

It wasn't that she had fallen in love with Peeta, she just hadn't ever stopped. He wasn't the arrogant guy that he appeared to be to everyone else. He had just developed a defense mechanism around her heart, as she did by backing away from everyone and isolating herself from her friends. She had kept track of him for years, watching him from afar.

She didn't know what this had meant for her and Marvel. When they had first gotten together she truly felt that she had loved him, she had been happy with him, when they had been together and things were good it was the best. It just seemed that she and Peeta had something between them that was meant to be, he had always been there for her when she had let him. She had even considered him to be her hope and light, he had saved her from her depression that had consumed her after her father had died. Her life had revolved around making sure that Prim was entertained, she was so little when the accident had happened, and her mother really did fall into a serious depression. She took as much time off of work as she could, her job at the hospital had allowed her to have a leave of absence. The only thing was is that pretty much the whole time she spent it in bed, weeping, not even trying to put together the broken pieces that her husband had left her in to care for her two young daughters. Katniss was responsible for making sure that she and Prim got to school and looked as presentable as possible to make sure that the teachers at school didn't catch on. Without her mom working at the time there was often little money for groceries, or an adult to even take her to the grocery store to get them. Katniss was only in the sixth grade when her father's accident had occurred, as an eleven year old this was a lot of responsibility to take on.

When Peeta caught on to what was going on he would bring an extra lunch and leave it secretly in Prim's second grade cubby, knowing that Katniss would never take it directly from him. Katniss would find the Mellark's Bakery paper bag every morning, usually with enough food for both girls. If she was careful enough when splitting the food for lunch it would often be their dinner as well. This is how Peeta Mellark wedged himself into Katniss' heart; caring for her and Prim, he was so selfless. She didn't know exactly how to thank him, how do you thank someone for doing that, as an eleven year old you definitely don't know how to do something like that.

Nearly a year after her father's death, the hospital ran out of time to give to her mother, she had to go back to work or lose everything. They nearly lost their home, but the thought of having to leave the home that held so many memories was enough to get Katniss' mom back to work. It helped; when she stopped allowing herself to be isolated from life she began to become a part of it again. She took care of her girls, she worked a lot but with Katniss' help she was able to get them back on track. In the seventh grade Peeta didn't need to drop off the food packages anymore, Katniss was so filled with gratitude for all that he had done for her, they became friends. They sat near each other on the school bus to and from school, Prim always sharing the same seat as Katniss of course, they walked home together from the bus stop. Their love for each other blossomed innocently, as children; they were part of each other's lives so completely. It had always been Peeta for Katniss, she knew that now. She realized how foolish it was to let herself ruin it by becoming his girlfriend at all in the eighth grade. How many times could you ruin something with someone before they decided that it wasn't worth it anymore? This time, she vowed, she wouldn't ruin it. They were sticking to friends, she couldn't expose herself to a love that was so complete like her parents had, so friends was the only thing that she could offer Peeta, she hoped it would be enough.

Over the next month she tried to return things to back to normal. The first time she saw Marvel after that night the guilt nearly crushed her. There was no fooling herself, what she and Peeta had done together the night after Marvel left her house was way over the line, and completely unforgivable. Marvel had driven all the way to her house just to drive her to school that Monday morning. He held her hand and was extra sweet, but she still felt the terrible weight of guilt on her heart.

They arrived at school and walked up to their friends in the parking lot. Katniss' heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, memories of what they had done together flooding her mind. The crowd fell silent as they approached, no one really knowing how the boys were going to react to one another after the fight that happened between them the Friday a couple of days before.

Marvel leaned over and kissed Katniss lightly on the temple and walked to Peeta. Peeta stood his ground as if anticipating another fight, but became surprised and sight confused when Marvel apologized to him about the fight that he had admittedly started. He told Peeta how he jumped to conclusions and should have never assumed that Peeta would do something like that to him. Peeta looked at Katniss over his should, he had a conflicted look on his face, but then accepted his apology.

The day continued as normal, after lunch Peeta fell into step with Katniss as they walked to their science class. "What did you say to him?" He asked.

She stopped just outside of the science class. "I admitted to him that there was someone else, but I told him it was just a random guy, not you." She looked sadly into his eyes. "I'm sorry, I should have told you everything that happened last time I saw you, but..." She trailed off without finishing her sentence.

"Why didn't you just tell him it was me?" He asked.

She sighed, "Because you were right. I don't want to give you up completely, I don't think I could if I tried. You've always been a big part of my life, somehow, always bigger than I can admit to myself. At least this way we can still be friends. We can still be friends right?" She asked hopefully.

"What if I don't want to just be friends?" He asked, reaching out to tuck a lock her dark hair behind her ear. Katniss didn't know how to respond, and she knew that she really couldn't trust herself around him. She pushed him away lightly and looked away from him and walked into the class. They were both late and they wordlessly took their seats.

After that day she tried to go back to normal but nothing was the same. She knew it was because she had let Peeta into her heart in the very way she didn't want to, he had imprinted on her, long ago actually, but until now she had managed to keep it dormant. Despite his comment about not wanting to just be friends it seemed that to him it was better than nothing at all as well. They would all go with their friends to places like the pizza restaurant and they would look at each other across the table longingly. It would make her feel like such a fake, having Marvel's arm around her, she soon had to admit that it wasn't what she wanted anymore.

She liked to think that she was trying, really trying hard, but honestly she was only going through the motions. Her heart wasn't in it anymore. When she was with Marvel, she found herself comparing him to Peeta, her reactions to him weren't the same. Marvel was so impossibly good looking, as was Peeta, she didn't think it would be so hard to have herself fall back in love with Marvel, but it was. This time it wasn't that she couldn't trust him, it was that he shouldn't be trusting her. Every kiss, every touch, she was thinking of someone else.

The last straw for her was when Peeta brought a girl named Cressida to the Halloween party that Marvel hosted. She was supposed to be playing hostess with Marvel, making sure that everyone had a good time, but her heart bottomed out on her when he came walking in with another girl on his arm. She was a nice enough; Katniss knew Cressida and liked her well enough, except that at that moment she wanted to pull all the hair out her head. Well, the hair that she had left anyway, she wore it in this super cool way that was long on one side but shaved very short on the other, well, normally it was awesome, tonight it was totally on Katniss' nerves. She watched as they went to the second floor to probably find a room to do who knows what together, hopefully not things that Peeta should only be doing with her.

She tried to continue to play hostess, but she was too distracted. This was the first time that she had ever seen Peeta with someone else, well, since they'd been together. She needed to do something, anything to get her mind off of what could have been going on. She was internally raging with jealousy in a way that she had absolutely no right to feel. She wondered if this is what Peeta had to feel and put himself through every time he saw Katniss with Marvel.

She had a few drinks, enough to make her feel light headed, hoping that the high would keep him off her mind, she was determined that she could get through this. If she could just get through this night then things could get back to normal. Peeta would find someone, she could let him go in that way, and she could concentrate on Marvel like she needed to. She found Marvel and dragged him to the second floor. She kissed him recklessly the whole way; they found his parents' room which was off limits to everyone else so they knew it would be empty. As things were getting heavy between the two she found it made her feel worse, not better. She was trying unsuccessfully to forget how much she missed Peeta, but again it was Peeta who was on her mind. The kisses that she used to love to share with Marvel were a poor substitute for the chemistry that she and Peeta shared together. She was using Marvel and she knew it, and in this moment she broke, she couldn't keep going on like this anymore.

She stopped them, made up an excuse to Marvel that they needed to stop before things got out of hand, that she'd had too many drinks for this. Marvel began to protest when mercifully they heard a slam and it sounded like things were getting out of hand downstairs. Marvel looked conflicted, he wanted to stay with Katniss, to convince her that what they were doing was fine, but he knew he had to leave to see what was going on downstairs. He left Katniss in the room by herself; she tried to collect her thoughts, she didn't know what to do next.

When she did come from the bedroom she found that Peeta was standing alone at the end of the hall way. They could hear the chants of "fight, fight, fight" coming from the first floor. It seemed the crowd had headed downstairs to check out the action.

She couldn't help it, it had been nearly a month since they had ended things, and every second since had been torture. She ran to him, jumping into his arms, locking her legs around his waist. Her heart wanted to be with Peeta so badly. She kissed him so passionately and recklessly, in this one breathless moment with him she knew that without him she wasn't truly alive.

Somehow they found themselves in an empty bedroom. He laid her on the bed and they lost themselves in each other. As his kisses travelled down her throat she looked around the room and realized this was Marvel's room, his bed. There was a picture of her and Marvel on his desk in the corner. Although she was still light headed from the few drinks that she had earlier her mind was still clear enough for the realization that if he found her in here, with Peeta, like this, he'd kill them both. The thought was enough to push Peeta away. He looked into her eyes confused, knowing that this was what she wanted, that she usually wasn't the one to stop them.

"Not here," she motioned around the room, "not like this."

With that she got up from the bed and after peeking her head out into the hallway and seeing it still clear she left the room and rejoined the party downstairs. She watched as Peeta came down alone a few moments later. She forgot that earlier he had been up there with Cressida, she glanced around the party and realized she was standing in the corner of the room with some of her own friends.

He approached her casually. "So what was that?" He asked, looking around and taking a sip from his drink, making it look like they could have been talking about anything.

She looked at him, playing the same game, smiling and acting casual. "I admit defeat Mellark; I can't keep playing this game." He looked at her happily. "Come tonight, we'll figure things out." Katniss said, then she indicated the area of the room that Cressida was in, "Please, do me a favour and end that, it's killing me."

He laughed happily and headed to Cressida. As if wanting assure Katniss that it was over, he whispered something into Cressida's ear which ended with him receiving a slap on his face. Katniss laughed loudly, shaking her head, as Peeta walked passed her he gave her a smile and mouthed the word "done".

The party wound down, Madge was heading home and was giving Katniss a ride home. She kissed Marvel and left, Peeta was still at the party hanging out with a couple of the guys, they shared a meaningful glance as she left the party.

Madge dropped Katniss off at her house, laughing as the girls recalled some of the things that had happened at the party.

Katniss tip toed into the house, trying not to wake her mom and Haymitch. She went to her room and got out of her Halloween costume and into a tank top and sleep shorts. She waited in the den, knowing that he wouldn't be much longer. Sure enough, less than a half hour after she got home the window slid open and he climbed in.

She ran to him almost giddily, so happy in this moment with her decision. She kissed him, he returned with as much enthusiasm as she had. They went to her room and shut the door behind her. She wanted so much from him, she wanted everything he could give to her, and she decided then that no matter what happened tonight she wouldn't be the one to stop him.

She had just internally decided this when his strong hands gently pushed them apart for each other. She looked into his dark blue eyes, wondering what he was looking for in hers, hoping that he would find what the answer that he wanted.

"I can't do this." He said. "It's too hard, if you love me, you love me. That's it, I don't want to share you with anyone else anymore, I don't want to hide what we have together. I want you to choose, me or Marvel. I don't want to play this game anymore." His eyes held some insecurity; she didn't want him to look at her like this.

Katniss broke out into a huge smile. "It's you, a million times; it has always been you Peeta. I'm sorry I didn't realize this sooner, I love you with everything that I am." She jumped into this embrace as she did earlier at the party, wrapping her legs around him, he held her tightly and they kissed in relief at being finished with the game. "I don't want to play anymore games. I'll break things off with him tomorrow; I think if I explain things right we can all still be friends." She said happily.

Peeta looked at her thoughtfully. "You know that can't happen, right?"

Her expression fell from hopeful to sadness. "Why not? He cheated on me with Glimmer and still expected me to be 'friends' with her."

"Well, that situation was completely different." Peeta began. "Everyone's been with Glimmer; she does that kind of stuff all the time. Going after other girls guys like that, sure it sucked that he cheated on you but things would have been different if you had just stayed friends after. We all knew that she was a bad person, but what they had was just like a onetime thing that happened. And if he did try to become a couple with her after breaking up with you, well, to be honest Katniss, you probably would have fallen out of the group." He held his hand up to tilt her chin to look into her stormy grey eyes. "No one will believe that you just jump from him to me just like that. You love too deeply; they'll know something was up. Besides, we didn't have a fling, we had a whole relationship. If Marvel ever found that out…" He let his sentence trail off, he didn't need to finish, and she knew that would be the end for them. They would be cut out; they'd be pariahs to their friends. "I'm willing to do all of that for you Katniss. I could do it, I love you completely and of it means being cut out by our friends then I can do it."

Katniss looked down to her feet. They both let go of each other so they could take a moment to think. "Is there a way we can do this?" She asked. "I don't want you to lose all of your friends. They're really all just my friends because I'm with Marvel, but you've been friends with the guys since forever." She said.

"Madge and Johanna are your friends. They'll stick by you." Peeta reasoned.

Katniss tried to think of a way to be with Peeta with as little damage to their reputations as possible. "I think if I abruptly break things off with Marvel it would look too suspicious. I'll take some time, two weeks or so. I'll let us drift apart; try to get this break up to happen as peacefully as possible."

"Yeah, that might work." Peeta agreed. "We still couldn't be together right away. I'd have to wait until he's really over you to ask if I could ask you out. Maybe a month?" Peeta suggested.

Katniss scowled a little. "Ask if you can ask me out?"

"Bro code, I'd have to give him that curtesy." Peeta shrugged as if it were common knowledge.

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Ok, whatever. You could ask me to the Winter Formal." The Winter Formal was a school dance that usually happened on the last day of school before the holiday break. "We go to the formal together, and come back from the break an official couple."

Peeta kissed her lightly and hugged her. She fit perfectly in his embrace; he lightly rested his cheek on the top of her head. "Are you up for one more game?" He asked.

She smiled, "I would put myself through anything as long as we keep coming out on the other side together."

Peeta laughed, "Plus we'll have these times alone together, you know, as long as Haymitch doesn't fix the window. We're still a couple, just not publicly, right?" Peeta left shortly after their plan was hatched, both confident that they would survive these games and come out the other side victorious.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N - Things have changed, plans really work out. My brain just wouldn't let it...

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><p>Chapter 10<p>

Katniss really had no idea how to go about creating friction between her and Marvel. The problem was that over the past few weeks she had been trying really hard to smooth things out, get things back to normal between them, and she had been very successful. Marvel didn't want any of their friends to know that Katniss had cheated on him, saying that he understood how she would have been so angry at him and if that's what she needed to do to help level things out between them then it was something he could forgive. She had been a model girlfriend, he was over the top sweet, and in an attempt to forget about how much she missed Peeta they had been pretty much inseparable.

Johanna texted Katniss Saturday afternoon, demanding a girl's night out, she said that she needed to cancel any plans she had with Marvel and she, Madge, Delly, and Katniss were going to do some fun girl stuff, no guys at allowed. Johanna and Cato had recently broken up and she needed to have a fun night with her friends after watching Cato hit on anything in a skanky costume the night before at Marvel's party. Katniss happily agreed, she hadn't been spending a whole lot of quality time with her friends lately, and she needed a break from Marvel to think about how she would go about this whole break up thing. It had to be gentle, and appear to be something that they both thought was right for them.

Delly decided to be the drive for the night, since they knew they didn't have any plans for the night, and Johanna may want to hit up a few parties. Katniss was the last one of her friends to be picked up, when she got in the car they decided to go and get something to eat so they could make a plan for where they decided to go for the night. Johanna asked if there were any good places nearby and Katniss suggested Greasy Sae's Diner. When they walked in to the restaurant they noticed Gale sitting at a booth with a friend.

"Oh my gosh, Madge, you didn't say that you're cousin was in town." Johanna practically squealed.

"Uh…I didn't know." Madge said.

"You've got to get us a seat at that table; it looks like he brought a hot friend with him." Johanna begged.

Just then Gale looked up and noticed Katniss and her friends looking their way. He smiled and waved them over.

"Well he sees us, what do we do? Just go over and say hello?" Katniss asked.

"No way, get him to sit with us Brainless. Look in the corner, that big booth is available." Johanna said excitedly.

The girls walked over, Gale greeted them happily, and he introduced them to his friend Finnick Odair. They were in town to hit up some Halloween parties that he had been invited to by some of his friends that he had kept in touch with. Johanna pointed out the big booth and invited the boys to join them for dinner, they agreed, and they moved to the largest booth in the restaurant. It was in the corner and was set up as a large semi-circle around a large round table. Katniss was the last to sit, so she was on the end, right beside Gale. They were having a good time, Johanna obviously flirting to her heart's content with Gale, who didn't seem to be opposed attention that the very attractive girl was giving to him. They had spent a long time just talking to each other and having fun, they had been at the diner just munching out on goodies and having a good time with their sodas and desserts after their meal when Johanna brought the attention to Katniss.

"So, in high school everyone thought that you two were together Gale, but Katniss said that wasn't the case." It seemed that Johanna was trying to feel out how Gale still felt about Katniss to if she even had a chance at him.

"Really? Why would they think that?" Gale asked.

"Come on Gale," Madge jumped in. "You two were practically inseparable until you graduated. Why wouldn't anyone think that?"

"Ugh, I told you guys we were just friends." Katniss laughed exasperatedly. "And I heard about what you did to Peeta and Marvel by the way."

"What? I'm just supposed to let a couple of punk kids talk about you the way they were?" Gale laughed. Then he thought about it, "Besides, I was crazy about you." He decided to admit.

"What?" Katniss blushed profusely. Everyone laughed at the priceless expression on her face.

"Yeah man, he had it for you bad. You friend zoned him pretty good." Finnick laughed. "I think he's had some time to get over it."

Gale put his arm around Katniss in a friendly gesture. "I don't think there is a man alive who would ever be able to melt your heart Catnip."

"Oh, there have been a few who have." Katniss laughed.

"Oh, really?" Gale asked.

"Yeah, she's been dating Marvel for almost a year." Johanna pointed out.

Gale looked at her thoughtfully, "Marvel, huh? The guy you wouldn't let near you if your life depended it on because it was disgusting to think of being with someone who'd been with every girl at school?"

At that everyone burst out laughing, Katniss put her face in her hands and groaned in embarrassment. "Ugh, yes I did say that about him at one point."

"Well, it looks like you were wrong Catnip. I'm glad you found someone." She looked into his eyes, they were grey eyes that mirrored her own, and she missed his friendship. She remembered that she could tell him anything at one point; he was like a brother to her. She nudged him lightly with her shoulder, they looked at each other and smiled, just then she heard the door open to the restaurant.

She looked towards the door and saw the guys come walking in. She was lucky she thought as she watched Marvel, Peeta, Cato, and Darius walk into the restaurant. She looked to Marvel and Peeta particularly, they were both so impossibly good looking, and it was intimidating. She knew they both thought she was beautiful, but when she was with either one of them she felt like she didn't measure up. She often felt ordinary, she was lucky to snag even one of them, let alone both. The thought just occurred to her that she had two boyfriends, both so hot, any girl would give anything to be with either one of them, and she had both.

Then she took notice of the furious look on Marvel's face, Peeta, who was standing a step behind him looked very angry himself. She suddenly realized that Gale still had his arm around her shoulders, and the nudge that she had just given him left her sitting closer to a guy who was not her boyfriend than she should be. Everyone at the table fell silent at the sight of Marvel; they knew what it looked like. Katniss panicked.

She stood quickly as the guys approached, "Ok, I know what you are thinking; this is not what it looks like." Katniss held her hands up in a calming motion.

"This is your girl's night?" Marvel asked angrily.

"Yes, well, it was, we ran into them here and invited them to sit with us." Katniss tried to explain. The expression on Marvel's face let her know that what she had just said somehow had made the situation worse.

Gale stood up and took a step in front of Katniss trying to help her calm Marvel and explain the situation. "Guy, calm down, really. She hasn't done anything wrong here."

"Don't talk to me." Marvel shut him down, both boys were about the same height, but Gale's build was a bit leaner than Marvel, who had a bit of a stockier build like Peeta.

"Marvel, let's just go outside, I can explain everything." Katniss begged.

"Is this the guy you cheated on me with?" Marvel accused. The girls at the table all let out a gasp in surprise, Katniss looked at everyone slightly embarrassed. Marvel shook his head and began to walk out of the diner; Katniss chased after him, as she walked passed Peeta she looked at him. He had some kind of anger in his eyes as well and when their eyes met he looked away. It looked like Katniss had a lot of fixing to do, but she needed to start with the one who was the most angry, and who more publicly was her boyfriend. She caught up to him in the parking lot and he turned to her, "I knew it wasn't just some random guy from some other school. It was him wasn't it? I knew you weren't the type of girl to just find a random dude and hook up the way you said. I'll admit, part of me still thought it was Mellark, but this makes way more sense."

"No, no it wasn't Gale. He just happened to be here, Johanna's into him, not me. He's like a brother to me, really." Katniss tried to explain desperately.

"I can't talk to you right now." Marvel walked away from her as fast as he could, got into his car and drove away.

She stood dejectedly in the parking lot, not really wanting to go back inside to her friends, but not really having much choice. Just before she walked inside Peeta stepped out of the restaurant, she huffed in exasperation. Her second boyfriend looked just as angry as the first.

"Do I have some kind of competition here Katniss?" He asked quickly.

She sighed and shook her head. "You don't have competition anywhere Peeta."

He seemed to think about that for a minute, then nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with her answer. He stood the side, and followed her as she went back into the restaurant. Everyone looked kind of awkward as she flopped herself into a chair that someone had pulled up to the table.

"Ok, who called them?" Katniss asked.

"Uh, I did. Sorry, we were so close and I knew they were going out for their own guy's night. I texted Darius, I thought we were having so much fun and it obviously wasn't turning into a girls night. I just figured they could join in on the fun." Delly said in an apologetic way. "I didn't know that he'd explode on you like that."

"Yeah, well, we also didn't know you cheated on him." Johanna said in an awed voice. "When did that happen?"

Katniss tried so hard not to look at Peeta for support. "After Glimmer." Was all she said.

"Good, he deserved it." Johanna said with a bit of maliciousness in her voice.

"I'm sorry guys; I just don't feel like going out tonight anymore. I'm going to head home, I'll just walk, and it's only a couple of blocks." Katniss got up to leave.

"No, it's early. Let him get a taste of his own medicine, come out with us, you can't just sit at home and mope around all night." Madge begged.

"Yeah, you guys can all party with us tonight. Have any of you ever been to a college party?" Finnick asked.

No one had, and it sounded promising. The girls and the guys all agreed to go, Katniss looked to Peeta who gave her an encouraging smile and joined in with everyone else who were encouraging her to go. She agreed, they all decided who was going to get there in whose car and they left the diner following Finnick in his car to the party.

They split up between Delly, Finnick, and Peeta's cars. Johanna and Madge jumped in with Finnick and Gale since Darius and Cato decided to jump in with Delly, this, rather conveniently left Katniss and Peeta to drive to the party alone together.

"Was that planned? That whole Gale thing?" Peeta asked while keeping his eyes on the road.

"No, I did not know you guys were coming. It was supposed to be girl's night." Katniss said defensively.

"Ok, so let me get this straight, you let Gale cozy himself up to you not thinking that Marvel or I would find out?" Peeta accused.

Katniss looked at Peeta. "I can't believe what you are saying right now."

"Well, I'm just, you know, trying to get things straight here. You know, seeing the way we started out, by you cheating on Marvel and all." Peeta muttered.

Katniss glared at him with her mouth hanging open in surprise. "I can't believe you would throw that in my face."

"Well, I don't know. I was just a bit shocked is all. It was pretty convenient that Gale was there, that's all I'm saying. And you looked pretty surprised and guilty." Peeta explained with an accusatory tone.

Katniss sat back in her seat on the passenger side of the car. She put her hand on her forehead. She could not believe what Peeta was suggesting. She didn't want to fight with Peeta; everything had been so perfect last time they were together. She looked over at him and undid her seat belt. She got as close to him as she could while he was driving, she kissed the side of his face that she could reach.

"Katniss what are you doing?" He asked surprised. "I'm driving!"

"Peeta, I told you, you don't have competition anywhere. Not Marvel and definitely not Gale." She continued to kiss him down his jawline and tried to angle herself to kiss the tender spot on the curve of his neck and shoulders the way she knew he liked. "The way we got together may not have been ideal, but I would do it again a million times as long as I always end up with you, only you." Peeta moaned in pleasure as she whispered this into her ear, they came to a red light and when the car stopped Peeta kissed her hungrily.

Soon they were in a neighbourhood that both Katniss and Peeta recognized. They soon pulled up in front of Glimmer's house. When they got out the car and joined their friends they realized that this was a party that Cashmere and Gloss were throwing, they were the old high school friends that had invited Gale. They all went inside and soon realized that college parties were far different than high school parties. First of all, apparently it was ok to dress in costume, and the less you were wearing the better. Whereas their parties would have some alcohol involved, this one had kegs and beer and harder liquor and it didn't look like people were concerned about going home completely wasted, probably because they didn't have parents who would kill them for what they doing when they got home. It was wild. The group assigned designated drivers, Peeta decided to lend his car to Cato to drive home in, Peeta wanted a chance to drink with his friends and apparently he had been a designated driver for the past few parties.

The group when to the beer tables and started drinking, they had fun, this was the first time she was at a party like this not as Marvels girlfriend. She noticed Peeta getting some attention from some of the girls who were there; she decided to pull him onto the dance floor.

He was a really great dancer, she felt like he made her a better dancer. They made friends with the older college students, they drank too much, and they had fun. They forgot about their friends being there, the plan they had was completely forgotten, they were too drunk to care about keeping up the charade.

When Katniss was off to the side to get herself a new drink and take a break from dancing Finnick approached her.

"So how long have you and this guy been together?" Finnick asked.

"We're not." Katniss insisted. Finnick let out a loud sarcastic laugh.

"This isn't the guy you've been cheating on your boyfriend with?" Finnick asked pointing to Peeta.

Katniss looked at Peeta, and feeling that Finnick didn't really know enough about her or her friends to care she decided to admit it to him. "Ok, yeah. We've been together for a few months now."

Finnick laughed. "So what's the plan? Peeta is just ok sharing you?"

Katniss shook her head. "No, I'm going to break up with Marvel, soon. I've chosen Peeta. I just don't know how to do it yet."

Finnick looked around and whispered into Katniss' ear, pretending like he had the world's best secret. "I saw your boyfriend here tonight."

Katniss looked at Finnick's face "what?" She asked in disbelief.

"He's here, right now, I saw him. He's here with some blonde. If you want an excuse to break up with him, I think that would be quite the predicament to find him in, you know, after your fight and all." Finnick suggested.

She stormed around the party searching. She didn't find them on the first floor, but she had been in this house enough to know where Glimmer's room was. Sure enough, there they were, going at it, this time they weren't just innocently making out. Katniss recognized Marvels clothes mixed in with Glimmer's on the floor. She was furious, drunk furious at that, which for was a new level of angry. Katniss had never experienced this kind of rage.

"Marvel!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. He pulled away from Glimmer; obviously he had also had too much to drink as well.

The fight was colossal, their friends had come to try to put an end to the fight and calm them both down, but months of tense distrust and hurting each other boiled down to this one fight. He yelled at her about how he had come here to make up with her, but instead found her dancing with Peeta in a way she should only be dancing with him. She accused him of being overly jealous, that he was making things up to look for excuses to run to Glimmer.

"I'm done Marvel, this is it! I can't take it anymore!" She yelled with finality.

"Fine! I don't even want you anymore!" He yelled back maliciously. "Being with you is like being with a child; you know why I came to Glimmer in the first place? Because she will let me do things to her that you aren't ready for yet, we've been together for months, and we've barely done more than kiss!"

"Well ha, I've gone way further than that, just not with you! I've been with someone better, who makes me feel like I can't even control myself! And you know what; he drives me so wild that he always has to be the one to put on the breaks, not me. So don't go blaming me, it's not my fault, it's not me, it's you!" With that Katniss stormed out of the house, Darius, Cato and Peeta trialing after.

Darius had decided earlier that since Delly had to be a designated driver he would be too, so he drove Cato, Peeta, and Katniss home. Peeta and Katniss sat in the back seat of Peeta's car, Darius and Cato in the front. On their way to drop Cato off at his house Katniss and Peeta sat as far away from each other as they could. They glanced at each other and Peeta smiled at her wickedly.

"So this other guy drives you wild huh?" He asked.

"Yep, it's so hard to stop sometimes because he makes everything feel so good." Katniss responded in her sexiest voice, playing the game with Peeta. She slid across the seat and kissed Peeta, even with their friends in the front seat.

"Whoa, Kat, don't you think maybe you should thing this through a little?" Darius asked when he saw what the two were doing from his rear view mirror.

"Shut up Darius!" Peeta yelled when Katniss kisses started trailing down his jaw toward his neck the way she knew he liked.

"Geez, I wish I sat in the back with her." Cato mumbled.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N - Very short last chapter. I've had fun writing this, but once I got to a certain part I felt like I'd really just be doing some filler chapters that I wasn't especially excited to do. We all know how Everlark ends, and once it got there I just wanted them to be happy. I want to send a special thanks to Carmelle (check out her fanfics) who without her comments K and P probably would have turned out as the bad guys, and of course, all the other reviewers, you all turned me into a review junkie! I have some ideas for more stories, and possibly even some one shots based on this story. Thanks for reading everyone ;)

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><p>Chapter 11<p>

Darius pulled Peeta's car into his driveway, Cato had decided to spend the night at Darius' house since he was very curious as to how this Peeta and Katniss thing would turn out. They were being pretty hilarious, making out in the back of Peeta's car as if Katniss' heart hadn't just been broken by Marvel again.

Delly's car wasn't too far behind and parked at the side of the street in front of Peeta's house, Darius and Cato got out of Peeta's car, yelling to the two that they had gotten to Peeta's house safely and that it was time to get out. They just continued what they were doing in the back seat of the car.

"Hey what's going on?" Delly yelled as she got out of her own car, Madge also getting out and walking towards the boys.

"Katniss and Peeta are going at it in the back seat. I don't know if they'll stop." Darius said.

"What do you mean? They're hooking up in there, right now?" Madge asked.

"Yeah, I don't know what to do. They're both so drunk, do you think they know what they're really doing?" Cato asked.

Just then the car door opened and the two came spilling out of the back of the car, laughing the whole time, when they landed on the grass they just continued their kissing. As Peeta's kisses landed on Katniss' neck she noticed her friends standing watching them with surprise written all across their faces.

"Oh good, Madge, I know I'm supposed to stay at your place tonight, but I'm going to stay here with Peeta." Katniss managed to push Peeta off of her and stumbled to Delly's car to get her overnight bag that she had brought with her.

"You're doing what?" Madge asked incredulously. "Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Don't worry, it's not the first time we've spent the night together." Peeta scoffed.

Now all of the friends were in shock. With her bag slung over her shoulder Katniss ran back to Peeta, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around him. They kissed again and then started to stumble their way into his house.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Peeta called over his shoulder as the two disappeared inside, leaving their friends gawking after them.

Katniss woke the next morning in a strange bedroom. It was obviously a boy's room, but it was very neat and tidy. Her head was still spinning; she had a headache and a queasy stomach.

The bed was so comfortable, the bedding was very plush and the pillows were extra fluffy, and she immediately recognized the familiar scent of Peeta, somehow always just a hint of cinnamon. She sat up and noticed that she was wearing one of his shirts, but Peeta was nowhere to be found.

She stood up, head pounding, stomach churning; she pulled her hair back and tried to put it in to some kind of order. The door opened and Peeta came walking in with aspirin and water, he looked as if he showered and dress, but somehow he still looked like he felt like hell.

"What happened? How did we get here?" Katniss asked.

"I assume Darius dropped us off." Peeta said. "I had a few messages on my phone this morning; I think we made it pretty obvious last night that this isn't the first time we've been together." Katniss nodded her head, she couldn't remember everything, but she definitely remembered not caring who saw her and Peeta together, especially after the fight with Marvel where they broke up.

She checked her own phone; there were messages from Madge, Delly, and Marvel. She decided to ignore the messages from Marvel for now, the ones from Delly and Madge told her where she could catch up with them. She checked the clock; found that they had slept away the whole morning. "I think it's for the best anyway. It shouldn't matter to anyone but us if we decide to be together, I'm tired of playing these games." Katniss said in determination.

He agreed Katniss took a shower in Peeta's bathroom; he lent her his t-shirt and a hoodie for her to wear out. When they headed down the stairs Katniss looked around the house. It was very well known that Mrs. Mellark loved to show off their wealth, the house was one of the most modern in the district. Every room looked as if it were designed and decorated by a professional, not a thing out of place. It didn't have a very homely feel to it, there were hardly any family photos, and it seemed that unless it was put there by a professional decorator then it wasn't necessary.

"Where are your parents?" Katniss asked.

"My dad's at the bakery, I was supposed to work this morning but when he came in I was still a little drunk so he just gave me the day off. My dad is pretty awesome that way. My mom is off on some spa retreat this week." He pulled the skin around his eyes back, indicating that spa retreat was code for some kind of plastic surgery. It made Katniss laugh.

"Oh my god, your dad saw me in your room?" Katniss asked with dread.

"Yeah, but don't worry, he won't say anything or make a big deal or whatever." Peeta said laughing.

They made their way to the very modern kitchen and Peeta started to make them breakfast. She thought they were just going to have toast or something, but Peeta started to make them French toast using the fresh bakery bread that his father must have left for them. It was delicious, although her stomach was still at little queasy, she found that the food helped. They had a good time; they ate their food in the living room at the coffee table, just relaxing, eating slowly, talking, and letting their bodies recover from the night before. Katniss thought it would be a good idea to call Madge to let her know that she was ok, since her friend kept sending her worried text messages; she was on the phone with Madge reassuring her friend and giving her little tidbits Madge to gossip to Delly and Johanna about her relationship with Peeta when the doorbell rang. Peeta got up to answer the door, when he pulled it open he was shoved aside and Marvel came storming it.

"So, it's true! You two have been sleeping together behind my back?" Marvel yelled when he saw Katniss in Peeta's house, confirming his worst fears.

"Marvel, what are you doing here?" Katniss asked ending the phone call in mid conversation.

"Cato told me what happened last night; I just had to come here to see for myself. I never would have thought that you could do this to me Kat, how could you?" Marvel demanded angrily. "Just because we got into another fight last night doesn't mean you had to go and sleep with Mellark!"

"It's not as bad as you think, we didn't sleep together, well…we didn't go all the way yet or anything." Peeta tried to explain.

"Yet? You didn't go all the way yet? Is that supposed to make me feel better? You're supposed to be my friend man," Marvel looked at Katniss, who was standing there guiltily. "You definitely are not supposed to be putting hickeys on my girlfriend!" Marvel yelled angrily.

Katniss' hand flew to her neck to cover the hickey that she had noticed in the mirror after her shower earlier. "I'm not your girlfriend Marvel, we broke up last night remember?" She said, trying to be understanding to Marvel's situation and hold back her own anger.

Marvel took Katniss' hands into his own and spoke gently, desperately, "We love each other, yeah, we both made mistakes, but you know we always forgive each other and fix things."

Katniss looked down at her feet, she couldn't look him in the eye, those big brown doe eyes that she fell in love with, "Not this time, Marvel." She said in a low voice with all the finality she could muster. His arms fell to his sides. "We've hurt each other too much, I don't know what we have anymore, but it's not love. I'm sorry; I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for anyone to get hurt. I thought I could do what you did to me with Glimmer. I thought I could just have this one thing to make me feel better sometimes, you know, when I would think of you and her together. It hurt so bad, I just needed something to take the hurt away, but, really, this hasn't been about you and me for a long time now." She finished breaking him as a tear slid down her cheek.

"So I was right all along? It was Mellark?" Marvel asked.

"Yes, it's been me the whole time." Peeta said, wanting to take his share of the responsibility. Katniss was openly crying now.

"I knew it, I saw you two together a couple of times, I saw you go into that closet together on the first day of school, I knew it was Katniss with you that night at the movies." Marvel said bitterly. "I guess I just didn't want to believe that either of you could do this to me, especially you Katniss, I thought we loved each other." Marvel accused.

"We did, that was real, we just flamed out. There was too much distrust, too many lies, especially from me." Katniss admitted.

Marvel nodded his head and as if he couldn't stand to be there anymore, he turned and left the house silently, not looking at either of them, slamming the front door shut behind him.

Peeta went to Katniss and comforted her as best he could. He let her cry, knowing that it didn't mean that she loved him any less just because she was crying for the end of her and Marvel. He had been a spectator to the relationship between them, anyone could see that for the two of them, what they had was real in the beginning, but it had been destroyed by them both. Two people who had forgotten how good it was to be together, and made choices that benefited them both, forgot who they were when they were together. Peeta knew that he would never forget, he would never let her forget who they were together. They had come together the hard way, but he knew that through this pain Katniss had also learned her lesson.

Katniss leaned on Peeta, her solid, caring Peeta. This was definitely worth the pain that she was going through now, this lesson that she had learned through many mistakes. She would never take for granted the relationship that she had managed to develop with Peeta, it was more real than anything she had ever experienced. Through this game she learned how to appreciate someone you can trust, she could not imagine Peeta putting her through anything like this. She knew that this is what she needed, she would not let anything burn away what they had managed to create together so far, and she hoped that they would become stronger together.

In the end they didn't care what their friends thought of how they came together, and they overestimated how much people would care. Marvel and Cato left the group, Marvel and Glimmer came together, but it seemed that they did not learn their lesson. Through the rest of their high school career there were times when it seemed that they were all still playing a game, Marvel and Glimmer against Katniss and Peeta, sometimes Katniss and Peeta won, like when they would hear people talking about how they both just seemed so destined to be together, that they looked so right together, that they were the couple that everyone wanted to be. Other times, Marvel and Glimmer would win, but frivolous things like prom king and queen, somehow those victories didn't seem as important to Katniss and Peeta.

They both went to the same college, Katniss as a business major, so she would be able to help Peeta when he took over Mellark's Bakery one day. His brothers wanted no part in it, they moved on to more prestigious careers, but Katniss and Peeta loved the world they grew up in and wanted to raise their family where it felt like home to them, and home for Katniss and Peeta is always district twelve.


End file.
